< The 2014 All-Europe Research Team

Gerardus Vos & team
Barclays
First-place appearances: 0

Total appearances: 2

Team debut: 2013

Advancing from runner-up to third place is Gerardus Vos’s London-based Barclays sextet. The group tracks 16 software names and has been generally positive on the sector since the beginning of last year, based on cyclical growth and despite a lack of earnings momentum. For this year the analysts recommend that investors be more discerning and favor companies with significant earnings growth. “Stock performance will be more selective in 2014,” says Vos, “and we prefer secular, cyclical and restructuring stories.” They believe that the European industry will continue to move toward subscription-based pricing, which “will put pressure on software companies, resulting in lower license growth and higher operating expenditures,” the team leader explains. Going forward, he adds, “software stocks will therefore have to come out with multiyear transition stories.”