< The 2015 All-America Research Team

Total appearances: 6

Analyst debut: 2009

Climbing from third place to second is Deutsche Bank Securities’ Joshua Shanker, whom one fund manager describes as “always the contrarian and worth debating with — he’s not afraid to tell you that you are wrong.” In one consensus-bucking move, Shanker, 41, is urging investors to buy a trio of Bermuda-headquartered property catastrophe–focused insurers and reinsurers — Everest Re Group, RenaissanceRe Holdings and Validus Holdings. Although the pricing power for their core line of products has fallen 40 percent in the past two years, he says, that decline is cyclical not secular. “Contrary to most of the casualty-focused risk-takers in the property/casualty insurance space that have benefited from claims deflation, these companies should benefit from the opposite,” Shanker explains. “Rising interest rates should lead to an increased ability to charge a meaningful premium to insure catastrophe risk. While pricing remains poor and these names trade barely above book value, there is a floor established through their buyback plans.”