Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Timna Tanners ascends one level to seize top honors for the first time. The 40-year-old, one client says, “is really sharp. She has real insight into the true economic drivers of her businesses.” Another praises Tanners for conferring with colleagues worldwide “to discuss trends and ferret out catalysts for actionable ideas.” Last fall the analyst reduced two of the 21 stocks she covers to underperform, because of declining coking-coal prices. St. Louis–based Peabody Energy Corp. she slashed from buy in September; Birmingham, Alabama’s Walter Energy she cut from neutral in November. Through August the coal miners’ shares trailed the sector by 1.2 percentage points and 40.1 percentage points, respectively. She prefers Consol Energy, a Canonsburg, Pennsylvania–based thermal coal supplier, thanks to its lower exposure to coking-coal markets. Tanners joined BofA Merrill in May 2011, after some nine years covering the sector at UBS. She earned an MA in journalism at Illinois’ Northwestern University and an MBA at the University of California, Los Angeles, Anderson School of Management. — Ben Mattlin |
The 2013 All-America Research Team: Metals & Mining, No. 1: Timna Tanners
