Michael Steib & team, Morgan Stanley

The Morgan Stanley group of three guided by Michael Steib spent the past four years in the runner-up position; this year the analysts jump to second place. “Michael is always accessible to bounce ideas off of and is someone that is just plain easy to work with,” attests one booster. The London-based researchers currently follow six stocks but expect to add two or three names this year, having identified some “good opportunities for investors with some of the smaller-cap European food stocks, which are perhaps a bit less well known,” Steib explains. He and his associates believe that the sector will continue to perform well — it advanced 3.1 percent in 2011 and beat the broad market by 15.3 percentage points — although they do caution clients that valuations are high relative to the broader market; therefore, some of the stocks may be susceptible to a sell-off in the event of a market rally.