Tal Liani
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
First-place appearances: 1

Total appearances: 10

Team debut: 2004

Tal Liani of Bank of America Merrill Lynch repeats in second place in this sector and also ranks third in Telecom Equipment/Wireless. The analyst takes “an original and unique angle to approach investment ideas focusing on true fundamentals,” according to one fan. Liani has added seven stocks to his coverage this year, bringing the total to 17, and he plans to increase that number before year-end because he has added the network security segment to his sector portfolio. “Networking is in a process of recovering from a tough year,” he notes. “The sector matured, growth decelerated, and new technologies started to threaten the positions of the incumbent vendors.” Since expenditures have been down across the spectrum, as well — from carriers and enterprises to the government — money managers have lost interest in networking names, he explains. Liani has taken this “as an opportunity to turn positive on some second-tier vendors, waiting for and looking to benefit from an eventual recovery in spending.” His top picks include industry leaders Ciena Corp. of Hanover, Maryland; San Jose, California–based Cisco Systems; F5 Networks, which is based in Seattle; and Sunnyvale, California’s Juniper Systems. — Pam Baker