< The 2016 All-Europe Research Team

Total Appearances: 34

Team Debut: 1990

Extending their winning streak to a sixth year — and collecting their eighth top finish since 2008 — Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s regional insurance analysts provide “excellent sector research on broad-based topics like Solvency II, capital position and volatility, cost efficiency, free-cash-flow generation and impact on individual companies,” one investor observes. At the helm since 2011, Blair Stewart, 43, directs a four-person crew that is stationed in London; he divides his time between that capital city and Edinburgh. Europe’s insurers experienced another year of outperformance in 2015, benefiting from their relative earnings resilience and high dividend yields, notes Stewart. “U.K. life insurers have suffered from uncertainties around Solvency II and possibly also ‘Brexit’ fears,” he says, referring to the chance that Britain might withdraw from the European Union. For the group as a whole, “high yield and defensive characteristics will be put to the foreground” early this year, the crew chief advises. “Thereafter, the sector’s ability to outperform will largely be driven by macro factors.” He and his cohort report on 34 companies and point to the world’s top two reinsurers, Germany’s Munich Re and Switzerland’s Swiss Re, as appealing defensive plays and recommend that investors buy the shares. Their respective price targets of €203 and Sf115 imply upsides of 22.7 percent and 24.2 percent compared with the stocks’ trading values in mid-January.