Douglas Leggate BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research
Unranked last year, Douglas Leggate of BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research returns to the No. 2 spot he last held in 2007, when he was with Citi. “He homes in on assets and understands more about them than anybody else,” avers one investor. Buy-siders hail the Houston-based analyst’s remarkable work on Occidental Petroleum Corp. of Los Angeles, especially a December report that included an extensive geological review and concluded that an “old play” in Kern County, California, would likely be far more fecund than previously acknowledged; with that in mind, Leggate dubbed the shares a bargain at $75.31. In a late April conference call with analysts, management indicated the company would be able to boost production in the second quarter, thanks to recent discoveries in Kern County, and the news sent Occidental’s shares soaring. They rose as high as $89.47 in early May before starting to slip, falling to $73.08 by the end of August. Leggate remains bullish.