< The 2015 All-Europe Research Team

Total appearances: 4

Team debut: 2010

In its fourth appearance on this roster, Exane BNP Paribas rises from runner-up to No. 3, marking the firm’s first appearance in the top three on this list. Brice Prunas and one colleague track nine European software providers. “We are cautious on the sector, as some structural issues may impact business models; some valuations are rich after several years of rerating; and the [information technology] spending outlook for Europe in 2015 looks dull,” reports the 41-year-old team leader. The London-based researchers lowered their rating on German enterprise software developer SAP from neutral to underperform in September, in anticipation of problems with the company’s transition to a cloud, or subscription-based, service. A month later, management issued a profit warning on the back of its its adoption of the cloud-based model, and the shares tumbled 5.8 percent on the day. SAP’s stock ended January at €57.86, down 3.2 percent since their downgrade and lagging the regional sector by 7.9 percentage points. Prunas joined Exane in September 2010 from Oddo Securities, where he led coverage of IT services and software names. He previously worked as an analyst at consulting firm Accenture and earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from France’s Ecole de Management de Lyon.