< The 2015 All-America Research Team

Total Appearances: 17

Analyst Debut: 1999

As he has done every year since 2005, J.P. Morgan’s Andrew Steinerman dominates this roster. The All-America Research Team Hall of Famer, 47, earns his 13th overall first-place finish, thanks largely to his reliable advocacy of winning names. Steinerman is “the single best sell-side stock picker,” insists one fund manager. “I’ve made a lot of money with Andrew and believe I’ll continue to in the future.” An example of the analyst’s successful calls is his long-held bullishness on Atlanta-based Equifax, a consumer credit reporting agency and transaction processing services provider. Even when the stock was foundering last October, punished on concerns about the company’s lackluster credit-data business, he stayed positive and reiterated his overweight rating on the name, reminding investors that the core nonmortgage operations were delivering solid earnings growth. The shares soon turned positive, and through mid-September, Equifax rallied 38.9 percent, to $97.04, outperforming the sector by 29.3 percentage points. The researcher also is sticking with Nielsen Holdings, a marketing information and analytics services provider that he has been touting for two years. The New York–headquartered concern is enjoying solid revenue growth and margin expansion as it deepens its penetration into online digital media, he explains. Trading at $46.74 in mid-September, Nielsen scores a $56 price objective from Steinerman. Since he first assigned the shares an overweight rating, they have outperformed the sector by 12.3 percentage points, climbing 30.8 percent. “Andrew knows his stuff inside-out and is never afraid to bang the table on a stock he wants you to buy, even if it is an out-of-consensus call,” another backer attests.