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Meredith Adler | Meredith Adler Barclays SECOND TEAM John Heinbockel Goldman Sachs THIRD TEAM Deborah Weinswig Citi RUNNERS-UP Neil Currie UBS |
Meredith Adler, with Barclays Capital following the acquisition of Lehman Brothers last month, takes top honors for a seventh straight year. Adler, 54, is “unique among her peers in her degree of skepticism,” says one client. In February the analyst urged investors to sell Whole Foods Markets, at $38.55, because she feared the Austin, Texas–based grocer’s reputation as high-end would not benefit it in a weakening economy. Whole Foods’ share price had plummeted to $18.43 by mid-September, a loss of 52.2 percent against a sector gain of 9.3 percent. John Heinbockel of Goldman, Sachs & Co., who rises one notch to second place, “is a throwback to the days when analysts really knew their companies,” says one buy-sider. Heinbockel upgraded Kroger Co. in April, at $26.08, on valuation. Shares of the Cincinnati-based supermarket chain rose to $30.32 before falling with the rest of the market but by mid-September were still up 6.9 percent, to $27.89, since his upgrade. Deborah Weinswig finishes third; she is also No. 1 in Retailing/Broadlines & Department Stores. The Citi analyst is “ever-present in monitoring the goings-on of food and drug chains,” says one investor. Weinswig initiated coverage of Safeway in May 2007 with a sell rating, on competitive pressures facing the Pleasanton, California–based supermarket operator. The stock had fallen 26.5 percent by mid-September.
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