< The 2015 Latin America Research Team

Total appearances: 10

Team debut: 1997At No. 3 for a second consecutive year, Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s crew in São Paulo wins praise from clients for providing what one fund manager says are “incredibly helpful insights.” Forty-one-year-old Felipe Leal and Diego Moreno, 33, direct the three-strong team’s coverage of 25 Latin American utilities. In October the group advised that management at Chile’s Colbún — an electricity and natural-gas provider — was successfully unwinding disadvantageous legacy contracts and launching several new power plants. Accordingly, the analysts upgraded their rating on the stock from neutral to outperform, dubbing Colbún a top pick. Its stock has steadily climbed since, rising 22.9 percent by mid-July, to 187.66 reais, and besting its regional peers by 26.8 percentage points. Looking ahead, they recommend that investors avoid Brazil’s hydropower providers, owing to a drought in that country, and instead prefer energy distribution and transmission companies as well as Chilean utilities. Clients hail the researchers’ outreach efforts. “They send daily e-mails with local news, which keeps me informed here in New York,” says one buy-side Wall Streeter.