Kathryn Huberty
Morgan Stanley
 Kathryn Huberty, who seizes third place for a third straight year, has a “deep understanding of the fundamentals, which gives her the edge versus her peers when deciding the right time to be positive or negative,” explains one advocate. May 2011 was the right time to be positive on Teradata Corp., the Morgan Stanley analyst told clients, citing strong growth prospects at the Dayton, Ohio–based provider of data-warehousing services. Good call: The stock bolted 36.9 percent, from $55.79 to $76.38, through August 2012. “The tech hardware sector is bifurcating, with secular trends creating a large divide,” Huberty says. “On one side of this divide, companies like Apple and Teradata should benefit from strong secular growth drivers such as the shift to mobile computing and the use of analytics for better business efficiency. On the other side many companies are challenged by these same themes, as they are bogged down by legacy businesses that are declining — without enough cash or other resources to invest aggressively in new, faster-growth markets.”