Brian Shea, Blair Stewart & team BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research
The buy side says: “They don’t change their ratings just to make an impact.”
The BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research team, which spent last year in second place, reclaims the top spot it held in 2008 and 2009. The four-member squad — now under the direction of Brian Shea, 45, and debuting co-leader Blair Stewart, 38 — is “highly accessible and keen to provide support,” declares one buy-side enthusiast. Last February the analysts highlighted their buy rating on U.K.-based Legal & General Group, at 74.35p, citing improving cash flow thanks to strong sales in fourth-quarter 2009. In October, after the stock had jumped 39.5 percent, to 103.70p, and bested the sector by 36.1 percentage points, they downgraded it to hold, on valuation. The shares finished the year at 96.75p. Stewart, who divides his time between Edinburgh and London, earned a bachelor’s degree in actuarial mathematics and statistics at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University in 1994. He worked as an insurance analyst at Deutsche Bank before joining Merrill Lynch in 2002.
