< The 2014 All-Japan Research Team

Harunobu Goroh & team
Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co.
First-place appearances: 0

Total appearances: 10

Team debut: 2005

For a fifth straight year, Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co. researcher Harunobu Goroh captures second place. One reason for his continued popularity among investors is that “he is really good at spotting themes the market likes,” explains one backer. “To develop those themes and construct a market thesis, he digs down into the whole range of complicated issues involving metals, materials, magnets and markets.” As last year, Goroh continues to favor Tokyo-based diversified metals and materials provider Dowa Holdings Co. Despite “the uncertainty in the direction of metals prices,” he says, the company has “the edge over nonferrous peers” in projected profit growth for the fiscal year ending in March 2015. Much of that advantage is thanks to expansion in its integrated environmental recovery and recycling industries, the analyst adds. In addition, that business segment should further benefit from overseas operations, he says, particularly from the “expected rise in contributions from Dowa’s Southeast Asia subsidiaries.”