< The 2015 All-America Research Team
Kasthuri Rangan
Bank of America
Merrill Lynch
First-Place Appearances: 2
Total Appearances: 7
Analyst Debut: 2008
At No. 1 for a second consecutive year is Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Kasthuri Rangan, 47. He is selectively positive on U.S. software names, noting that he has assigned neutral or underperform ratings to roughly 40 percent of the stocks in his 31-strong coverage universe. “We have been quite vocal about being selective with business-model transition stocks in software, highlighting that we prefer Adobe [Systems] and Intuit over Microsoft [Corp.] and Autodesk,” says the San Francisco–based researcher. “We continue to be selective and prefer to see a combination of strong growth and improving operating leverage that can potentially hold up well when and if interest rates start rising. Adobe, Salesforce.com and Zendesk are companies that we believe have strong growth coupled with operating leverage ahead.”