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The 2015 All-Europe Research Team: Utilities, No. 1: Alberto Gandolfi & team
It’s three in a row at the top of this list for UBS’s five-person crew under the guidance of Alberto Gandolfi, 37.
Total Appearances: 53
Team Debut: 1991
It’s three in a row at the top of this list for UBS’s five-person crew under the guidance of Alberto Gandolfi, 37. Based in London, the researchers are “the most visionary team, with strong predictive accuracy,” as one fund manager puts it. Another supporter deems them “the best both technically and commercially.” In September, Gandolfi and his cohorts reiterated their buy rating on Spain’s Red Eléctrica de España, the partly state-owned electricity grid operator. The shares were undervalued, they believed, and the company enjoyed a strong balance sheet and high dividend yield, as well as a stable regulatory environment. Red Eléctrica was already up 39.2 percent for the year to date, at €63.96, and leading Europe’s utilities shares by 25.2 percentage points, but the analysts foresaw more room for the stock to run. It did just that, climbing to €75.56 at the end of last month, for an additional gain of 18.1 percent over a period during which the sector inched up 1.6 percent. UBS’s squad followed that call with an analysis of the liquefied-natural-gas market in October that wins particular client praise. Gandolfi and his teammates highlighted a big jump in LNG supplies that foretold a drop in profits for such suppliers as Spain’s Gas Natural SDG, reiterating their sell rating on that name. By the end of January, the shares had lagged the broad European market by 12.2 percentage points, slipping 8.7 percent, to €20.80. “Alberto focuses on not only long-term value but also short-term stock price movements,” remarks another backer.