< The 2015 All-America Research Team

Total appearances: 5

Analyst debut: 2011

“He is the man to talk to on the asset managers. He is as opinionated as a buy-sider and has stronger convictions,” applauds one admirer of Citi’s William Katz, who lands in second place for a second consecutive year. Katz is a fan of traditional asset managers that are “building out their asset-allocation portfolios, whether it be global equity or global bonds,” he says. “With some good performance trends, you could capture some volumes.” One name he prefers in this context is Affiliated Managers Group of West Palm Beach, Florida, which “has done a very good job of being ready for where the volumes are going” with its large, global equity portfolio and an alternative platform, the analyst explains. “They’re also sitting on a pile of capital, [and] they’ve been very forthright in saying that they probably can see a series of deals as we work through this year into early next year. That will not only help the earnings story but will probably add on some nice organic growth stories.” His price objective for AMG is $265, which suggests a potential 51.2 percent premium to the stock’s value in mid-September. Katz is also touting Baltimore’s Legg Mason, contending that concerns surrounding perceptions of the firm as a major fixed-income player aren’t warranted once its business operations are broken down and examined closely. Moreover, he’s impressed by the company’s improving cash flows, as well as its “tremendous capital return story.” To wit, the firm has a deferred tax asset allowance “that’s a huge weapon right now because it’s shielding a ton of pretax income from taxes that they’re using to fund growth and buy back stock,” the researcher advises. He assigns Legg Mason a price target of $67; it closed at $42.88 in mid-September.