Atsushi Yamaguchi UBS The buy side says: “Yamaguchi’s wide-ranging analyses are useful to our stock performance.” Atsushi Yamaguchi, who claims the pole position for a ninth consecutive year, “has a long career in the stock market and good relations with top managements — this is very helpful to me,” asserts one buy-side enthusiast. In March 2010, when Nippon Light Metal Co. announced plans to sell its money-losing building-materials business, the 45-year-old UBS analyst upgraded the stock from neutral to buy, at ¥108, on the belief that the Tokyo-based aluminum producer’s balance sheet would improve. Good call. By the end of February 2011, the stock had catapulted 62 percent, to ¥175, and blew past the sector by a whopping 70.3 percentage points. Less spectacular but still applauded was last May’s upgrade of Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co. from neutral to buy, at ¥251, primarily on the Tokyo-based outfit’s ballooning earnings. Shares of the lead and copper alloy supplier climbed 28.7 percent, to ¥323, and outpaced the sector by an impressive 24 percentage points, through February. “His massive, deep information flow is valuable for building our investment strategy,” explains one advocate.
Polling and tabulation of data as well as reporting on the sector profiles were completed before the March 11 Tohoku earthquake.
