Bobby Chada, Emmanuel Turpin & team, Morgan Stanley

Down one notch to third is the Morgan Stanley squad of six jointly directed by Bobby Chada and Emmanuel Turpin. The analysts, who work out of London, earn high marks for their early caution on German utilities, especially their September 2010 downgrade of E.on from equal weight to underweight, at €21.95, largely on pricing pressure from an oversupply. In June, after the stock had tumbled 16 percent, to €18.44, and trailed the sector by 13.5 percentage points, they upgraded the Dusseldorf-based energy provider to overweight. Although the shares continued to slide, ending the year at €16.67, they nonetheless beat the sector by 6.3 percentage points. “You can always tell their recommendations come after thorough research, which isn’t necessarily true with other analysts,” insists one loyalist.