< The 2016 All-Japan Research Team
Masahiro Ono
Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co.
First-place appearances: 0
Total appearances: 7
Team debut: 2001
Recording his first top-three appearance since his 2001 debut on this roster, Masahiro Ono rises from runner-up to third place. He monitors 15 Japanese consumer electronics names for Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co. and is “good at analyzing profit changes,” says one fund manager who also hails the researcher for his “good work on Sony Corp.” For his part, Ono, 53, observes that most companies in his sector are facing lower profitability in their traditional advanced audio-visual equipment businesses, such as digital cameras and televisions, in the face of global competition from Chinese and South Korean manufacturers and shrinking demand because of shifting user preferences toward using smartphones. Even so, he dubs Tokyo-based Sony a likely standout against this backdrop. The diversified multinational boasts the largest share of global revenue and volume for imaging sensor technologies that are used in smartphone cameras and can be employed in the advanced driver assistance systems — an expanding industry. Demand for Sony’s music streaming services, moreover, is increasing, Ono notes.