The 2013 All-America Research Team: Quantitative Research, No. 2: Michael Goldstein

In second place for a third consecutive year is Michael Goldstein of Empirical Research Partners; he also repeats at No. 2 in Portfolio Strategy. Goldstein is recommending that investors hunt for individual companies whose dividend growth is overtaking earnings expansion “by a wide margin,” he says, and “where managements have demonstrated the willingness to return money to shareholders. A low payout ratio,” he adds, “is interpreted as evidence that there’s a lot of room for growth.” He believes that the equity markets are rightly “phobic” about public companies that engage in capital spending. “We favor companies retrenching and returning capital to shareholders,” he says. On this front, Goldstein is touting many stocks in the consumer cyclicals, financials, industrial commodities and technology sectors — which “stand out as offering the best opportunities,” he says. The strategist’s approach “is methodical, consistent and thoughtful,” one Boston-based asset manager asserts. “Michael really studies what’s happening quantitatively and what’s happening on a macro basis, and pulls it all together. I always try to read his research,” the supporter adds. “It’s thought provoking.” — Paul Sweeney