The buy side says: “He is everything a sell-side analyst should be.”
In first place for a fifth straight year is J.P. Morgan’s Joseph Greff. Fans credit the 40-year-old analyst with leading the pack in urging clients to buy Las Vegas Sands Corp. Greff issued an outperform rating in May, at $21.65, one month before the Nevada-based casino operator opened its newest property, the Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore. The recommendation proved to be a jackpot for investors, as the stock had surged to $28.33 through August, a gain of 30.9 percent that trumped the sector by 27.7 percentage points. Clients also applaud an industry conference Greff hosted in Las Vegas in March, as well as his quarterly field trips to gaming hot spots Macau and Singapore — and what one money manager call his “excellent grasp” of industry numbers. “His models are phenomenal; the information is very deep and relevant — not arcane facts but data that really drive stock prices,” cheers one portfolio manager.
