Esteban Polidura & team Deutsche Bank Securities

Esteban Polidura shepherds the Deutsche Bank Securities duo up one notch to third place; the Mexico City–based pair also claims a runner-up position in Real Estate. With a coverage universe that has increased over the past year to 20, the analysts are particularly prized for downgrading the American depositary receipts of Cemex from buy to hold in October 2010, at a split-adjusted $7.75. Shares of Mexico’s cement-producing giant had become overly volatile, they insisted, as investors reacted more to troubling developments in the euro zone and foreign exchange markets than to industry fundamentals. In February 2012, after the company announced better-than-expected quarterly results, the team moved the ADRs back to buy, at $7.56. They rose as high at $8.25 later that month before starting to slide, falling 10.1 percent, to $6.79, by mid-July and trailing the sector by 8.1 percentage points. Nonetheless, the analysts remain bullish. “Esteban thinks outside the box,” hails one constituent. — Ben Mattlin

RUNNER(S)-UP
Adrian Huerta & team J.P. Morgan
Nikolaj Lippmann & team Morgan Stanley
Daniel McGoey & team Citi
Carlos Peyrelongue & team Bank of America
Merrill Lynch Guilherme Vilazante & team Barclays