Alan Alanis & team J.P. Morgan

The buy side says: “Alan knows the industry better than the insiders.”

For a third year running, New York–based Alan Alanis, 43, leads J.P. Morgan’s three-member team to a first-place finish. The analysts cover 14 companies with “terrific strategic insights,” as one portfolio manager puts it. Specifically, fans raise a glass to two long-standing beer upgrades: In July 2010 the first-teamers hoisted Mexico’s Grupo Modelo from neutral to overweight, at 58.56 pesos. In March, with the shares already up 44.3 percent, to N$84.51, they pounded the table, owing to the brewer’s rapid market-share gains, volume growth and dividend yield. By mid-July the shares had bubbled up to N$119.98, for a 104.9 percent life-of-call advance that beat the sector by 37.9 percentage points. The team upgraded Brazil’s Cía. de Bebidas das Américas in December 2010, at 19.46 reais, on the strength of its expanding margins, accelerating earnings and high dividends. AmBev’s stock surged to 33 reais in mid-July, for a 69.6 percent gain; over the same period the sector advanced 44 percent. The analysts continue to recommend both companies. — Ben Mattlin