< The 2016 All-Asia Research Team

Total appearances: 11

Team debut: 2001

Repeating at No. 3, Morgan Stanley’s regional Internet crew is now guided by Robert Lin, making his debut appearance. “The team is strong in highlighting the new players in the different segments of the Internet sector in China,” one admirer reports. Given the sector’s strong performance since September, and relatively high resulting valuations — it was up 21.9 percent as of late April, leading the regional broad market by 16.2 percentage points — near-term stock outperformance is likely to be limited, says Lin. However, industry leaders Alibaba Group Holding, Baidu, Ctrip.com International and Tencent Holdings should experience strong earnings growth this year because they are “supported by structural positives that are unlikely to change in a slowing macro environment,” including an improving monetization rate for Alibaba and robust digital advertising growth for Tencent, he notes. Those four large caps are the analysts’ favorites over the next three months, partly because of a round of MSCI adjustments this month that may double the weighting of the China American depositary receipts in its China index. When it comes to small companies and midcaps, they recommend being more selective, preferring 58.com, SouFun Holdings and Weibo Corp. among the advertising vertical players. Lin, 37, earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from New Jersey’s Rutgers University and joined Morgan Stanley in March 2007, covering Chinese consumer stocks before heading up China Internet research. His team’s seven analysts — stationed in Hong Kong, Mumbai, Seoul and Sydney — follow some 50 stocks.