Hidehiko Hoshino UBS

Hidehiko Hoshino takes second place for a third year running; the UBS analyst is also a runner-up in Plant Engineering & Shipbuilding. Praised for supplying clients with “abundant data about key drivers,” as one buy-side backer puts it, Hoshino further endeared himself by sticking with a buy on Kubota Corp., first recommended back in February 2008. In June, when shares of the Osaka-based heavy-equipment producer slipped to ¥671, he pounded the table, citing a rise in tractor demand in China and Thailand. Sure enough, ballooning sales propelled Kubota’s stock 19.2 percent, to ¥800, through February. During the same period the sector advanced 3.6 percent.  — Ben Mattlin