Daisaku Masuno Nomura Securities Co.

The buy side says: “He has the most thorough understanding of the industry.”

For a fourth consecutive year, ­Daisaku Masuno of Nomura Securities Co. finishes on top. He covers “the whole range of companies involved in telecommunications — not only the carriers but also infrastructure and equipment makers, Internet and other service providers, content providers and handset retailers,” marvels one backer. Masuno, 47, had been bullish on the sector until early February, when he warned that rising competition would put downward pricing pressure on mobile phone services providers. Later that month he downgraded Tokyo-­based NTT DoCoMo — a stock he had been recommending since October 2009 — from buy to neutral. The shares, then at ¥140,100, had slipped to ¥138,800 by the end of that month. — Pam Baker