THIRD TEAM

Yoshihiro Hashimoto BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research

Unranked since 2008, Yoshihiro Hashimoto of BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research finishes third. “His reports are very detailed and show a high level of understanding of the companies — he digs in and gets the right valuations of property and works hard to get the numbers right,” explains one fund manager. In January 2010, Hashimoto reiterated his buy call on Daito Trust Construction Co., at ¥4,490, on the strength of “bottomed-out fundamentals” and “long-term growth potential” of the Tokyo-based builder. The market seems to have agreed: By the end of February 2011, the stock had rocketed 48.6 percent, to ¥6,670, and beat the sector by 36.5 percentage points.

Polling and tabulation of data as well as reporting on the sector profiles were completed before the March 11 Tohoku earthquake.