The 2013 All-America Research Team: Biotechnology, No. 2: Geoffrey Meacham

In second place for a sixth year running is Geoffrey Meacham of J.P. Morgan. “Geoff does it all for his clients, all the time, with his usual perception, patience and persistence,” one proponent avers. “He knows his companies, his industry and his science.” Biotechnology shares enjoyed a terrific run this year through August, bolting 48.3 percent and besting the S&P 500 by 33.8 percentage points. “For the rest of the year, we see additional upside,” Meacham says, “and we expect outperformance in 2014 based on continued growth acceleration of revenues and earnings per share, as well as expanding pipelines across the sector.” His top pick going forward is Foster City, California–based Gilead Sciences, which the analyst has been promoting since late 2011, not long after the drug maker announced its intent to acquire Princeton, New Jersey’s Pharmasset. That deal, which closed in January 2012, gave Gilead the right to develop an experimental therapeutic Pharmasset had discovered for the treatment of hepatitis C, now known as sofosbuvir. The stock rocketed 64.1 percent in the first eight months of 2013, and “there is still significant upside from the launch of sofosbuvir,” Meacham advises, “with an approval expected by year-end 2013 and new [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] Phase 3 data coming in the first quarter of 2014.”— Leslie Kramer