Matthew O’Connor Deutsche Bank Securities
The buy side says: “His analysis is often spot-on.”
Matthew O’Connor of Deutsche Bank Securities is No. 1 for a fourth year running. Deemed a “top-notch, go-to guy” by one client, the 36-year-old analyst upgraded PNC Financial Services Group from hold to buy in February 2010, as a bargain at $50.35, dismissing investors’ fears that the Pittsburgh-based institution would experience liquidity problems following its exit from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. About a week earlier the bank had announced that it would sell $3 billion in common stock and up to $2 billion in senior notes to boost its capital reserves; it also agreed to sell its global investment servicing unit to Bank of New York Mellon Corp. to help raise the funds necessary to repay the $7.6 billion TARP loan. O’Connor’s confidence in the institution proved well founded. By July 2011 the stock had jumped 19 percent, to $59.91, and led the sector by 12.3 percentage points, prompting him to downgrade it back to hold, on valuation. The shares had fallen to $50.14 by late August. “Matt puts the data together clearly and succinctly, then he can draw the obvious conclusion when a bank is doing well and when it is not,” avers one backer.