< The 2014 All-America Research TeamJoshua RaskinBarclaysFirst-place appearances: 1
Total appearances: 3
Team debut: 2002Barclays analyst Joshua Raskin repeats at No. 2 on this roster and at runner-up on the Health Care Facilities list. He forecasts that U.S. managed care stocks will continue to outperform, as they did year to date through mid-September, rising 15.4 percent while the nation’s broad market gained 7.3 percent. Preferred names in the group include Aetna in Hartford, Connecticut, and St. Louis’s Centene Corp. Aetna’s May 2013 acquisition of Bethesda, Maryland–based Coventry Health Care “continues to move along ahead of pace, and additional synergies are pushing guidance higher,” notes Raskin. His $95 price objective for the stock represents a 15.7 percent upside to their value in mid-September. As for Centene, Raskin highlights the company’s strong second-quarter results and management’s modest boost to guidance for 2014. “Most important, in this phase of above-average industry growth, the top line continues to exceed our estimates, and revenue guidance is up another 5 percent,” he notes. Centene traded at $77.21 in mid-September, and he forecasts a rise to $96. “Josh works harder than anyone to condense all of the health care service company regulatory filings into information I can use to make investment decisions,” reports one admirer. “He also delivers information on key trends, earnings releases and company announcements faster than anyone else on the Street, making it easier to come to timely investment decisions that can make or save money.”