< The 2015 All-America Research Team
Justin Post
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
First-place appearances: 2
Total appearances: 8
Analyst debut: 2008
Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Justin Post captures third place, down from the No. 1 position he earned the past two years. Even so, investors deem him thoughtful, accessible and a good stock picker. He is “one of the more objective analysts, who isn’t afraid to slap a neutral or underperform rating on a stock,” one portfolio manager affirms. “He uses a data-driven research process to dictate his outcome.” Working out of San Francisco, Post reports on 40 companies in this space, and he is somewhat cautious on the wider group. “We believe the U.S. Internet sector has seen an inflow of investment from China, media and technology sectors in 2015, making valuations more of a risk as several stocks are trading in the upper half of their historical valuation ranges,” he explains. “A large macroeconomic disruption could result in a bigger decline for Internet stocks than other sectors. Another risk is slowing mobile growth, which has been a big growth and private-market valuation catalyst for the sector. We would expect the year-over-year growth in mobile usage to decelerate as the incremental improvements in devices, mobile network speeds and [application user interfaces] slows.”