Steven Alexopoulos  J.P. Morgan The buy side says: “Steve simply knows how to make money.”

Steven Alexopoulos hurdles from third place all the way to the top — it’s the J.P. Morgan analyst’s first No. 1 finish. Alexopoulos, 40, possesses “the ability to cut through the noise and focus on what is important,” avows one benefactor. The researcher upgraded MB Financial from neutral to overweight back in September 2009, at $17.89, citing the Chicago-­based lender’s growing profitability and efforts to improve liquidity; the bank had just announced plans for a $150 million follow-on stock offering. In April 2011, with the shares up 17.3 percent, to $20.98, but trailing the sector by 10.3 percentage points, Alexopoulos downgraded them to neutral, primarily on valuation. By late August they had plunged 22.3 percent, to $16.30. “He understands the nuts and bolts of bank balance sheets better than many of his peers,” says one client. “His knowledge of the management teams is above many of his peers. He is a very solid analyst in the midcap space.” ­Alexopoulos, who received an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business in 2002, joined J.P. Morgan in 2007 from Sandler O’Neill + Partners, where he covered small- and midcap banks.