< The 2015 All-Europe Research Team

Total appearances: 13

Team debut: 1999

Deutsche Bank’s squad drops to No. 3 after two consecutive years in second place. Co-led by Andrew Chu and Thomas Sykes, the London-based team is four members strong and covers 24 regional business and employment services companies. “We believe that U.S. manufacturing will slow in 2015 and that this may negatively affect the multiples of the more cyclical stocks in our sector,” says Chu. “We do not believe that Europe will be strong enough to provide much support to the organic growth of the sector, and as such we prefer those stocks that have structural growth, consolidation potential or self-help levers to pull to add value.” The Deutsche analysts have been bearish on the sector over the past year and short on Switzerland’s Adecco and Randstad Holding of the Netherlands. Both European staffing agencies were placed on the group’s sell list last January, and by mid-October their shares had slumped to low points not seen since the summer of 2013. Adecco shed 16.3 percent and was trading at Sf59.05, while Randstad plummeted 36.2 percent, to €31.40. During the same period, the regional sector tumbled 13.5 percent and Europe’s broad market slipped 6.7 percent. The stocks subsequently recovered to close last month at Sf68.90 and €46.92, respectively, but over the life of the call, they were down 2.4 and 4.6 percent, against the sector’s decline of 1.5 percent and the regional broad market’s gain of 5.4 percent.