Nicholas Delfas & team, Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley climbs from runner-up to the third spot under the guidance of Nicholas Delfas, who works out of London. “Delfas and his team have provided consistently good recommendations,” declares one money manager, citing the five-member crew’s coverage of BT Group and Vodafone Group as examples. The analysts upgraded both U.K.-based telecommunications services providers from equal weight to overweight in March on valuation, growth prospects and other factors. By the end of the year, the stocks had outpaced the sector by 16 and 12.2 percentage points, respectively. “Stock picking was key in 2011 — and that was our key focus,” says Delfas. His group picked up tracking of two more companies over the past year — Denmark’s TDC and U.K.-based Virgin Media — for a total universe of 26 stocks. No change in coverage is expected this year.