< The 2015 All-Europe Research Team
Oswald Clint
Sanford C. Bernstein
First-place appearances: 1
Total appearances: 9
Team debut: 2006
Down one rung to second place is Sanford C. Bernstein, whose Oswald Clint now reports on 16 of Europe’s oil and gas exploration and production names by himself. The 40-year-old analyst works out of London and has recently turned negative on Spain’s Repsol. The integrated oil producer’s valuation was too rich at €19.15, he cautioned in December 2013, so he downgraded the stock from outperform to market perform. It had slid to €15.69 by the end of last month, for a loss of 18.1 percent over a period during which the sector fell 8.1 percent. Thanks to its strong free cash flow, Clint advised clients to prefer Norwegian oil explorer and refiner Statoil, raising it from market perform to outperform, at 138.20 kroner, when he downgraded Repsol. Statoil’s shares soared as high as Nkr194.20 in June before price cuts caused a sell-off to Nkr128.40 at the end of January. “Oswald’s recent stock picks aren’t the best,” one pension fund manager acknowledges, “but I trust his experience.” Looking ahead, the Bernstein researcher predicts that oil prices will recover in 2015 and favors Total, owing to the French major’s capital discipline and high dividend yield.