Alexander Hugh, Bosco Ojeda & team, UBS

UBS slips to third place, after two years in the No. 2 spot. The 20-member troupe is headed by London-based Alexander Hugh (who also co-leads, with Nicholas Nelson, the second-place team in United Kingdom coverage) and Bosco Ojeda, who works out of Madrid. The analysts produce the “most comprehensive bottom-up research in the space” and have “the closest management contacts,” declares one buy-side loyalist. The team is advising clients to maintain a balanced portfolio focused on quality stocks, Hugh says, noting that the researchers are “generally more cautious” on companies in Portugal, Spain and other countries where sovereign-debt worries have adversely affected the domestic economies and banking systems. “We expect declining [real] gross domestic product growth in 2012 for this area to surprise negatively, and the banking sector there still requires further capital,” he adds.