Carter Braxton Worth
Oppenheimer & Co.
Carter Braxton Worth of Oppenheimer & Co. slips one spot to No. 3. Deemed by one admirer to be “the best technician on Wall Street,” Worth is strongly bullish. “We’re looking for prices, as measured by any index you care to use, to be higher at year-end than they are now,” he says. “Not only is it the end point that’s constructive, but the trajectory is okay — meaning we don’t think there’s anything untoward around the corner like a major crash.” And, even though “people are bearish and the headlines are terrifying,” Worth points out that the stock market is doing as well as it did earlier this year, indicating that investors are “seeing past the fiscal cliff and the elections.” He believes the strength of most stocks in the classically defensive consumer staples and health care sectors is sustainable, as is the continued hardiness of financial stocks like New York’s American Express Co. and Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp. Worth also says many “badly beaten-up” energy and industrials stocks have “manageable downside risk yet unusual upside ‘pop’ potential,” such as Peoria, Illinois–based Caterpillar and Baker Hughes, an oil field services company headquartered in Houston.