< The 2015 All-America Research Team

Total appearances: 6

Analyst debut: 2010

Earning praise from one fund manager for producing “a prodigious volume of useful research and good stock calls,” Morgan Stanley’s Nigel Coe secures his fourth third-place finish in five years; he was No. 2 in 2014. In February, Coe turned cautious on electrical equipment and electronics manufacturer Hubbell, lowering his rating on the Shelton, Connecticut–based maker of plugs and connectors from overweight to equal weight. During the 12-month period leading up to his valuation-based downgrade, the stock climbed 6.9 percent and led its peers by 10.5 percentage points. Subsequently, it fell 3.8 percent, to close at $108 in mid-September. Over the same period the U.S. electrical equipment and multi-industry group slumped 17.1 percent and the broad market lost 7.4 percent. One name the analyst looks on favorably is Washington’s Danaher Corp., a leading producer of measuring and testing equipment. He shifted his position from equal weight to overweight in July, optimistic about management’s pending acquisition of Pall Corp., a filtration and purification systems provider headquartered in Port Washington, New York. “This is a transformational deal,” he contends, that should drive double-digit earnings and free-cash-flow growth through 2020. Danaher’s shares traded at $86.21 in the middle of last month, off 1.2 percent while the sector declined by 8.8 percent, and Coe believes that a price of $100 is justified. In his reporting on 23 companies, the 44-year-old researcher ”provides useful snapshots and reference materials for generalists like us,” another investor offers.