< The 2015 All-America Research Team

Total appearances: 8

Analyst debut: 2006

For a fourth year running, Morgan Stanley’s Ricky Goldwasser captures second-place honors. The 45-year-old analyst “produces very thoughtful research, has the best industry contacts and is always innovating her research,” one portfolio manager attests. Key themes driving performance for America’s health care technology and distribution companies include leverage to the growing area of specialty pharmaceuticals and improved research and development yield, as well as M&A and turnaround — or self-help — stories, Goldwasser believes. Preferred names are those with exposure to specialty spending, which “will continue to increase in importance as new drugs come to market and manufacturers look to increase compliance and better manage patient populations,” she says. Her large-cap favorite continues to be San Francisco’s McKesson Corp., a wholesale drugs and medical supplies distributor that she has for two years been urging clients to overweight, citing, for example, its market leadership, strong executive team and capital deployment. The shares rose 4.4 percent during the 12 months through mid-September, to $203.73, and Goldwasser projects a rise to $294. Until recently she also touted small-cap Diplomat Pharmacy of Flint, Michigan, an independent operator dispensing and delivering clinically intensive and specialty drugs. She resumed coverage on the name in July, with an overweight rating and price objective of $56, crediting its healthy pipeline and then-favorable pricing environment. Early this month, however, she lowered her position to equal weight, as drug pricing came under increasing pressure in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Goldwasser continues to like Diplomat on a fundamentals basis and retains her price target. During the term of her bullish call, the stock slipped 9.2 percent, to $40.43.