Sandy Lee & team Nomura

Sandy Lee of Nomura leads a Hong Kong–based quintet that repeats in second place. “They provide high-quality research on a very regular basis. The team really tops all others on the quant research end,” one fund manager declares. Lee predicts that stock correlation, mean reversion of factor valuations and especially earnings-revision trends are “key things to watch for the rest of the year” because of their implications for both growth and value investors. “Earnings upgrades are just starting,” Lee observes. “If this accelerates, this would trigger rerating and help the performance of value later on.” In the meantime, however, the case for value may be muted, given that value spreads are less extreme in Asia after the risk-on rally early this year. — ­Carolyn Koo