Takaki Nakanishi Bank of America Merrill Lynch

After spending two years on the buy side, Takaki Nakanishi returns to this slate on the second team. The analyst, who held the top spot from 2004 through 2009, when he was with UBS and then J.P. Morgan, joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch in March 2011 and initiated coverage one month later. He issued an underperform rating on Yamaha Motor Co., at ¥1,475, judging its shares artificially inflated after the company’s facilities sustained relatively mild damage from the massive earthquake that decimated much of Japan six weeks earlier; he also pointed to cost pressures and increased competition in Indonesia, where Yamaha has a 39 percent market share. The Shizuoka-headquartered motorcycle maker’s stock plunged 20.9 percent, to ¥1,166, and trailed the sector by 23.3 percentage points, through February. “Nakanishi-san has forgotten more than his peers will ever know,” asserts one enthusiast. “He keeps a watchful eye on all the end markets instead of just relying on colleagues in foreign offices.”  — Ben Mattlin