Marcelo Motta & team J.P. Morgan First-place appearances: 0
Total appearances: 3
Team debut: 1995 Leaping from runner-up to claim the No. 2 spot on this list are Marcelo Motta and his J.P. Morgan team of four, which reports on 28 regional real estate companies. “They help us understand the broad sector with more clarity than anyone else,” says one asset manager. In February 2014 the analysts launched coverage on Mexico’s Concentradora Fibra Danhos, a commercial real estate investment trust that specializes in developing office properties and shopping centers. They deemed the shares worthy of overweighting thanks to Danhos’s strong pipeline of high-end assets and “the vast amount of ongoing consolidation and new construction” in the local market, recalls São Paulo–based Motta. Through late July the stock catapulted 40 percent, to 35.01 Mexican pesos, easily besting the sector’s gain of 13.5 percent. J.P. Morgan’s squad maintains its positive outlook, he says, because “Danhos should continue to gain visibility among investors, given the quality of its projects, which will lead to higher valuations.”