Tien-Tsin Huang
J.P. Morgan
First-place appearances: 0

Total appearances: 6

Team debut: 2008

J.P. Morgan’s Tien-Tsin Huang claims second place for a fifth year running. Leading coverage on 23 companies, Huang “knows the space extremely well,” according to one investor. Over the past year, Huang has focused on two primary issues: how companies will adapt to new rules on the interchange fees merchants pay to banks to process debit card transactions, and which names will avoid being displaced as consumer spending moves to mobile payments. “Our long-term view on the sector remains very positive,” the researcher notes, “given favorable secular trends, high operating leverage and strong cash flow generation.” In addition, he still favors payment networks operators and merchant acquirers over other segments. Cincinnati-based Vantiv is Huang’s favorite name. Dubbed his top pick in January, at $20.90, as most likely to be among the winners in the battle against disintermediation, the integrated payment processor’s shares had jumped 26.4 percent, to $26.41, by the end of August, outperforming the sector by 21.9 percentage points. Going forward, Huang also recommends Evertec, a San Juan, Puerto Rico–based e-commerce services provider; and Purchase, New York–based processing giant MasterCard. — Pam Baker