THIRD TEAM

Douglas Harned  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

Douglas Harned of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., who slips one rung to third place, wins praise for “accurately identifying the more attractive companies,” as one investor puts it. Harned initiated coverage of Goodrich Corp. in January 2010 with an outperform, at $63.09, on the strength of the company’s free cash flow and commercial-aircraft revenue growth. Shares of the Charlotte, North Carolina–based designer of aviation electronics systems flew to $98.66 in late July 2011 before market turbulence sent them tumbling to $89.18 by the end of the following month, for a life-of-call gain of 41.4 percent that soared past the sector by 37.8 percentage points. “I bet he can recite each plane’s bill of materials from memory,” declares another fan.