SECOND TEAM

Andrew Baum & team Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley’s four-member team under the guidance of Andrew Baum spent the past four years in the runner-up position but this year leaps to No. 2. The researchers deserve “top marks for conviction and flexibility,” in the words of one investor impressed with the team’s uncharacteristic downgrade of long-term favorite Roche Holding, which the analysts had been urging clients to overweight since 2006. In September, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it was extending its review of the Basel conglomerate’s breast cancer treatment drug Avastin, the analysts downgraded the stock to neutral, at Sf138. In December the FDA announced that it was “recommending removing the breast cancer indication from the label for Avastin (bevacizumab) because the drug has not been shown to be safe and effective for that use.” By the end of that month, Roche’s stock had barely moved, ending the year at Sf137.