Mark Clark, Timothy Race & team, Deutsche Bank

Unranked last year, Deutsche Bank sweeps into second place, helmed by newcomers Timothy Race and Mark Clark. Race “melds science and finance better than most of his peers,” observes one buy-sider, while another notes that “Clark’s broad-based experience stands out, as does his knowledge of the companies on a very detailed level.” Six of the team’s eight members (including its leaders) work out of London; one is in Frankfurt and another in Zurich. The analysts follow 14 companies, two more than last year. “Once current headwinds — such as macro-driven austerity measures and patent losses — have been absorbed, the pharmaceuticals sector will be viewed by investors as a growth sector, albeit not one able to deliver the heady pace of growth seen in the 1990s,” Clark says. The group is advising clients to allocate new money away from defensive names that have already performed strongly, such as U.K.-based GlaxoSmithKline and Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, and instead consider stocks with more upside potential in a less risk-averse environment — Germany’s Bayer is one such example.