< The 2015 All-America Research Team

Total appearances: 12

Analyst debut: 2003

In third place every year since 2013, Nigel Dally of Morgan Stanley wins plaudits for his “helpful corporate access,” in the words of one investment manager. The analyst, 46, points to macroeconomic developments — especially the direction of interest rates — consolidation, regulatory developments and capital management as key drivers of U.S. life insurers’ performance. “Generally, we see fundamentals across the industry as strong,” he says. “We see valuations of the smaller-cap names as being supported by consolidation activity, while buybacks are likely to continue to drive solid accretion, given most companies have solid capital ratios.” On this theme he recommends that investors prefer Ameriprise Financial, owing to the Minneapolis-headquartered provider’s strong margin-expansion story. Another favorite is Radnor, Pennsylvania’s Lincoln National Corp., which has substantial upside earnings-per-share potential and a “very low” valuation, explains Dally. Moreover, despite market concerns about the occurrence of adverse mortality incidents, requiring the insurer to pay more money than anticipated for a given period to beneficiaries in death benefits, he projects that the events are “likely just quarterly noise.” The researcher is also touting MetLife of New York, advising that the company’s strong, diversified operations have been delivering results ahead of expectations. He anticipates further potential upside in management’s buyback scheme, given the strength of MetLife’s balance sheet and international operations, which are providing solid growth opportunities over time.