< The 2015 All-Japan Research Team
Akifumi Hayashi
Mizuho Securities Group
First-place appearances: 0
Total appearances: 2
Analyst debut: 2014
Akifumi Hayashi of Mizuho Securities Group debuted in 2014 in third place and this year rises to No. 2. He reports on five of Japan’s trading companies. “Aki is always helpful with his detailed analyses, especially his updated commodities price data trends, and generous with his time,” remarks one money manager in Singapore. Hayashi is selectively optimistic for the future. “Companies that are able to optimize capital allocation could generate positive core free cash flow,” he says. That’s important, he adds, because performance “tends to be driven by normalizing equity risk premiums, which requires optimizing capital allocation.” On this theme the researcher has been recommending that invesors buy Marubeni Corp., a Tokyo-based iron, steel, infrastructure and power concern. He reiterated his buy rating on the shares in February, at ¥722, and by late March they had climbed to ¥736.20, still well below Hayashi’s price object of ¥930.
