< The 2014 All-Europe Research Team
Morgan Stanley’s London-based squad under the guidance of Penelope Butcher rises one level to seize second place. “Penny is a go-getter with a savvy sense of the industry and stock movements,” one U.K. portfolio manager avers. The four-member team tracks an expanding sector portfolio that now numbers 42. Current favorites among these names are the U.K.-based passenger and cargo carrier International Consolidated Airlines Group and France’s Groupe Eurotunnel, whose concessions operations include the two rail tunnels that run beneath the English Channel. Last March the researchers advised that International Consolidated management was trimming excess operations and strengthening the company’s balance sheet, meriting a rating upgrade from equal weight to overweight for the shares. Sure enough, by late in December the Bolsa de Madrid–listed stock had skyrocketed 61.3 percent, to €4.84, far outdistancing the sector’s 26.8 percent gain. The team continues to favor International Consolidated, says Butcher, owing to its “earnings momentum, restructuring and transatlantic growth.” In November the analysts likewise upgraded Eurotunnel to overweight from equal weight, primarily on valuation. At year’s end the shares were up 6 percent, to €7.64, and trumped the broad market by 4.5 percentage points. |