< The 2015 All-America Research Team
Sara Gubins
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
First-place appearances: 0
Total appearances: 6
Analyst debut: 2010
Maintaining the No. 3 position on this lineup she has held since 2012 is Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Sara Gubins, whom one fund manager praises as “an intelligent analyst who expresses herself clearly, responds quickly to client inquiries and is a good educator.” Among the 28 names in Gubins’s sector portfolio, Menlo Park, California–based Robert Half International and New York’s Thomson Reuters Corp. are two favorites. She raised her rating on RHI from neutral to buy in September 2012, at $25.49, primarily on valuation. By the middle of last month, the share price had rocketed 99.7 percent, to $50.90, well beyond the sector’s gain of 48.4 percent. Although it ended the preceding 12-month period not far from where it began, she remains upbeat thanks to the strong demand growth the temporary employment agency is enjoying. Gubins, 40, believes that a price of $68 is justified. She pegs information services provider Thomson Reuters at $45, which represents a 12.7 percent premium to the stock’s value in mid-September. Also earning a long-standing buy recommendation, the company is still attractive owing to its steady market position, the researcher advised in April, when she highlighted her positive stance, at $40.15.