| For a fourth year running, Barclays’s Andrew Kaplowitz is No. 1; he also claims a runner-up position in Machinery. Kaplowitz covers 24 companies across the two sectors and is appreciated for “keeping us up-to-date on any new information he has gathered in his fieldwork,” according to one portfolio manager. Case in point: a September 2011 report reiterating his overweight on perennial favorite Foster Wheeler, a diversified industrial concern headquartered in Geneva, on a likely pickup in business. The company has announced that among its new contracts this year is a deal to build a gas-to-liquids facility for Petróleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras. The stock surged 19 percent, from $18.40 to $21.90, and outpaced the sector by 7.3 percentage points, through August. The analyst currently favors Fluor Corp., on valuation, particularly after a recent jump in petroleum refinery bookings for the Irving, Texas–based engineering services provider. Kaplowitz, 39, “has a good grasp of the fundamental drivers, down to the project-by-project level,” marvels another devotee. |
Capital Goods/Industrials - Engineering & Construction: First
October 16, 2012
