< The 2015 All-America Research Team
Karen Short
Deutsche Bank Securities
First-place appearances: 0
Total appearances: 2
Analyst debut: 2014
Holding steady in the No. 3 position she earned in her debut appearance last year, Karen Short of Deutsche Bank Securities “has raised her game to a new level,” one money manager affirms. “Unique to any sell-sider her research simultaneously invokes the thought processes of a CEO, a consultant and an investor, producing a thoroughness that is rare on Wall Street these days. Her research should be mandatory reading for every board member in the supermarket spectrum.” The 47-year-old analyst’s general advice to money managers interested in U.S. food and drug chain operators is to select companies that are gaining market share and have demonstrated strong returns on invested capital. By these metrics, she adds, the gold standard of success is Cincinnati’s Kroger Co., the nation’s largest supermarket chain operator, by revenue. Kroger’s fundamentals — including earnings growth, ROIC and volume expansion — are “so strong,” Short notes, “you can’t compare them to their peers.” She has been urging clients to buy the retailer’s shares for two years, and those that didn’t jump in in September 2013 missed a 100.2 percent run-up in the stock through the middle of last month, on a split-adjusted basis, compared with the sector’s 26 percent gain. In the 12 months through mid-September, the shares bolted 41.5 percent, to $36.73, pacing the group by 33 percentage points.