THIRD TEAM

Nobuyoshi Miura Citi

Nobuyoshi Miura, who was No. 1 in 2008 and 2009, rises from runner-up to third place. The Citi analyst is “one of the best stock pickers in the sector,” declares one buy-side backer. Miura told investors to sell Tokyo-based brewer Kirin Holdings Co. in February 2010, at ¥1,342, after the collapse of merger talks with Suntory Holdings, a rival brewer headquartered in Osaka; Miura believed the failure posed a risk to Kirin’s earnings. The company reported that net income plummeted 76.8 percent in 2010, largely owing to amortization of goodwill related to mergers dating back to 2007. By the end of February 2011, the stock had tumbled 13.1 percent, to ¥1,166, and trailed the sector by 8.7 percentage points.

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