< The 2014 All-Japan Research Team
Total Appearances: 3
Analyst Debut: 2012 Thirty-six-year-old Taku Ouchi of SMBC Nikko Securities repeats in first place in large part because his lucid explanations of complicated, sometimes mind-numbing, subjects help clients make money, backers say. “He is not just a real genius at numbers-crunching,” one admirer relays. “He is great at making the numbers come alive and at forecasting [and is] at his best in small meetings where he breaks down his models.” Ouchi is advising investors to overweight Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a diversified manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo. The company is well positioned to meet midterm operating profit targets of ¥250 billion ($2.4 billion) in the fiscal year ending in March 2015 — outstripping by 29 percent his own projections, the analyst reports. Underpinning the anticipated strong performance are benefits from MHI’s July 2013 merger of its thermal power generation systems with those of Tokyo-based engineering giant Hitachi, sales growth for gas turbines and after-sales services and nearly twice the expected operating profits for commercial vessels, he adds. The shares closed in mid-March at ¥591, and Ouchi believes that fundamentals support a price of ¥800. He is similarly bullish on the prospects for Tokyo-based Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., foreseeing a 33.3 percent upside to the stock’s mid-March value of ¥210. Management’s cost-cutting efforts on diesel engines, in combination with a decline in reserves for losses on construction orders and a general improvement in outlook for the shipbuilding market, lead Ouchi to predict “a return to high profit growth in fiscal year 2015,” he explains.
