< The 2016 All-Europe Research Team

Total appearances: 9

Team debut: 2007

At No. 2 on this lineup for a second year running is Sanford C. Bernstein. Splitting his time between London and New York, Pierre Ferragu provides the firm’s research on European hardware technology companies, maintaining a sector portfolio of 11 names after discontinuing coverage of three outfits over the past year. Ferragu, 41, believes that the regional telecommunications equipment subsector is in its last round of M&A activity. With the closing last month of the merger between Finland’s Nokia Corp. and Alcatel-Lucent of France, the industry is now “a very consolidated market, ripe for structural, multiyear margin expansion,” he contends. Trends visible since 2013 should continue to drive pricing power this year, the analyst believes, including a stabilized footprint, software-defined technology and concentration. “We are advising clients to buy into the Nokia merger as the best way to play this theme — the merged company is a leader in wireless, and the combination with Alcatel-Lucent offers significant synergy potential.” Ferragu raised his rating on Finland’s Nokia from market perform to outperform in April, following the announcement that the world’s leading wireless equipment provider would pay €15.6 billion ($16.6 billion) to acquire its smaller French rival. Although the stock had traded down 7.8 percent by mid-January, to close at €6.60, Europe’s hardware and equipment providers overall had tumbled 21.6 percent. “Pierre takes the time to understand and easily convey complicated technologies and markets,” one admirer observes, “and is not afraid of making controversial or nonconsensus calls based on this deep technology and market knowledge.”