2015 All-America Research Team: Internet, No. 1: Carlos Kirjner-Neto

Carlos
Kirjner-Neto

Sanford C.
Bernstein & Co.

First-Place Appearances: 1

Total Appearances: 3

Analyst Debut: 2013

Improving on the No. 2 position he claimed the past two years, Carlos Kirjner-Neto posts his first top finish. The 49-year-old researcher has tracked U.S. Internet names at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. since joining the firm in October 2010. Before launching his sell-side career, he worked as a technology and telecommunications industry consultant at McKinsey & Co.; directed business development at U.K.-based telecoms giant Vodafone Group and semiconductor manufacturer Telegent Systems in California; and spent time as a senior adviser to the chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, helping develop a national broadband plan. Kirjner-Neto holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as an MSc in electrical engineering from the Imperial College London and a BSc in engineering from Brazil’s Universidade de São Paulo. Despite that impressive résumé, he is “the rare analyst who will readily admit he doesn’t know something — or that something is unknowable,” marvels one admirer. Investors also praise his in-depth and thoughtful reporting, hailing his coverage of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding and Mountain View, California–based search engine and web analytics behemoth Google, in particular. Kirjner-Neto conducts a unique “level of detailed financial and key metrics analysis,” one fund manager affirms, including his attempt to “estimate where Google is spending the [capital expenditures] by [reviewing] the segments of accumulated [property, plant and equipment] on the balance sheet and correlating those levels to revenues. While its not exact, it’s the only real work I have seen on trying to determine if Google’s business is becoming more capital intensive or if they are investing in areas ahead of revenue.” The Bernstein analyst reports on nine companies in this space and insists that “it is still day one in the Internet sector — and there are still many opportunities to create value.” In that vein he has maintained an outperform rating on Seattle’s Amazon.com throughout the past year, believing that shareholder value still can be unlocked from the company’s dominant retail enterprise — powered by Amazon Prime and especially in its international electronics and general merchandise business — as well as its disruptive web services franchise. Over the 12 months through mid-September, the stock soared 66.2 percent, to $540.26, far outdistancing both its sector peers and the broad market, which rose 3.6 percent and fell 2.6 percent, respectively. Kirjner-Neto’s price objective for Amazon is $600.