< The 2015 All-Japan Research Team

Total appearances: 5

Team debut: 2011

Claiming the No. 3 position on this roster is Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Takashi Enomoto, who held second place last year and earns a third straight runner-up spot on the Metals roster. The 37-year-old researcher monitors 34 stocks. Among his favorites in the Japanese chemicals space is Sumco Corp., which Enomoto elevated from neutral to buy in March 2012. Shares of the Tokyo-based provider of silicon wafers to the semiconductors industry were undervalued at ¥976, he advised, and they have generally traded upward since. Early last month management notified market participants that it intended to issue up to ¥60 billion ($501 million) in common stock over the following year, with proceeds to be used to buy back preferred shares, repay loans and invest in capital expenditures. And near the end of March, Sumco was changing hands at ¥2,100, rocketing 179.6 percent over the trailing 12-month period and trouncing its domestic peers by 122.8 percentage points. It remains Enomoto’s top pick, largely thanks to earnings improvements from rising silicon-wafer prices and “a change in the sector to one where we can expect stable growth,” he says. His price target is ¥2,650. “Takashi is very knowledgeable and forward-thinking,” attests one asset manager.