Jiong Shao & team Macquarie Capital Securities

The Macquarie Capital Securities quartet debuts in third place. “Our view of the Internet space is neutral — it’s all about the specific story of each company,” observes team leader Jiong Shao, who is based in Hong Kong. Among the 25 companies the analysts follow is Youku, an online video hosting service headquartered in Beijing. They initiated coverage in April 2011 with an underperform rating on its American depositary shares, at $54.26. “Our negative view was based on our cautious view toward the online video space following our deep-dive industry research,” Shao says. Good call. The ADRs plunged nearly 60 percent, to $21.99, and trailed the sector by 69.7 percentage points, through March. One portfolio manager praises the team’s “extremely useful monthly Internet traffic-tracker product for the Chinese Internet — no one else to my knowledge compiles that kind of monthly traffic, market share and growth data like that.” — Pam Baker