SECOND TEAM

Hiromichi Tamura Nomura Securities Co.

Hiromichi Tamura of Nomura Securities Co. repeats in second place, thanks in part to what one client calls “high-quality research pieces.” Noting that price-earnings ratios have not been very effective in assessing Japanese equities since 2007, when the subprime mortgage market in the U.S. began to collapse and roil economies around the world — “this is a major headache not just for quant-based investors, but also for fundamentals-based investors” — Tamura observed that P/E valuations “recovered slightly in 2010, but this cannot be regarded as a full-fledged recovery.” In December he urged clients to buy stocks with low P/E ratios, and says that such stocks in his model portfolio advanced 3.8 percent through February, while the Tokyo stock price index was flat.

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