Henrique Caldeira & team Barclays

B arclays spent the past two years in the runner-up position in Banking & Financial Services. We split that sector into Financials/Banks and Financials/Nonbanks, and the two-member team — now helmed solely by São Paulo–based Henrique Caldeira — sweeps into second place in the latter sector. The analysts upgraded Brazil’s Porto Seguro from equal weight to overweight in September 2011, at 18.19 reais, on the expectation of strong earnings growth. The insurer’s stock leaped to 23.33 reais in February, but the researchers held on too long, critics charge. By the time they downgraded it back to equal weight in May, on earnings pressure from declining interest rates, it had surrendered nearly all its gains and fallen back to 18.31 reais. Even so, it did outperform during the overweight period, by 5.6 percentage points. The stock kept dropping, trading at 16.50 reais in mid-July. “They have a long-term, fundamental approach that matches our own,” insists one loyalist. — Ben Mattlin