Craig Moffett  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. The buy side says: “He provides insightful, detailed analysis of the stocks under his coverage.”

Topping the roster for a sixth consecutive year is Craig Moffett of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.; he is also No. 1 in Telecom Services. Clients say the 49-year-old analyst provides “big-­picture thinking” and is “the intellectual in the group.” Moffett downgraded longtime favorite Time Warner Cable from overweight to equal weight in May 2010, at $47.39, on concerns that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission might regulate broadband pricing and thus constrain the New York–based cable services provider’s growth. In November, when it became evident that the FCC had no immediate plans to change broadband regulation, the analyst moved the stock back to overweight; by then it had advanced 18.3 percent, to $56.07, just ahead of the ­Standard & Poor’s 500 cable and satellite index’s 15.9 percent advance. The shares kept rising, climbing 16.8 percent since ­Moffett’s upgrade, to $65.50, and leading the sector by 13.6 percentage points.