< The 2015 All-America Research Team
John Glass
Morgan Stanley
First-Place Appearances: 7
Total Appearances: 11
Analyst Debut: 2005
John Glass clinches his sixth consecutive first-place showing, earning praise from one fund manager for “knowing his restaurant companies like the back of his hand.” Moreover, offers another booster, the Boston-based Morgan Stanley analyst is “delightful, candid and insightful.” Last October, Glass became more upbeat on Miami-based Burger King Worldwide, believing that the fast-food restaurant operator’s then-pending acquisition of Canadian coffee shop Tim Hortons would improve liquidity and international growth for Burger King and give the company a new scale that would help make it “relevant.” Accordingly, he raised his rating on the stock from equal weight to overweight, at $30.08. By December it had jumped 18 percent, to $35.50, beating the S&P 500 by 16.3 percentage points. Burger King then ceased trading, on completion of the $12.5 billion deal and listing of the newly combined company, Canada-based Restaurant Brands International, which the researcher continues to favor. Its shares had moved little by mid-September, closing at $36.69, while the broad market slipped 3.8 percent. Glass, 51, “isn’t afraid to ask the tough questions of managements that others are too McChicken to,” quips another backer.