Gunnar Cohrs & team, Berenberg Bank

Berenberg Bank repeats in third place, thanks to analysts who stand “head and shoulders above the rest” and leave “no stone unturned in their search for recommendations,” clients say. Gunnar Cohrs leads the 64-member squad from London with a pan-European approach that he says will include coverage of 500 stocks by the end of the year — an increase of 25 percent. The researchers expect the German economy to outperform the euro zone in 2012, but not by much: If Europe’s sovereign-debt crises are brought under control by early summer, Cohrs says, Germany could see real gross domestic product grow at an annual rate of 0.1 percent (compared with -0.7 percent throughout the euro zone). Primarily because of low stock valuations — the German market is trading 16 percent below its long-term average, he says — the team’s outlook is bullish, “in particular for the second half.” Best-performing sectors are projected to be capital goods, including cyclicals such as autos. Most likely underperformers? Banks.