Himanshu Patel J.P. Morgan The buy side says: “He’s the first guy I call for company insights.”
J.P. Morgan’s Himanshu Patel wins the pole position for a fifth straight year. The 36-year-old analyst initiated coverage in August 2010 on Tesla Motors, a San Carlos, California–based developer and manufacturer of electric vehicles and components. Patel broke with the consensus and put an overweight rating on the stock, then at $19.60, based on strategic partnerships the company had established with Daimler, which owns a 10 percent stake in Tesla, and Toyota Motor Corp., for whom it will provide electric power trains (components, such as engines and transmissions, used to generate power for the vehicle). The stock raced to $35.47 in late November before starting to sputter, slipping to $24.74 by the end of August — but still up 26.2 percent and ahead of the sector by 28.8 percentage points since Patel’s recommendation. “He knows the car companies inside and out and has good relationships with management — nobody does a better job,” says one buy-side admirer. Another recalls Patel’s reassuring insights after the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan: “Himanshu did a good job of getting us through the Japanese crisis and calming investors about the impact on the supply chain.”
