< The 2014 All-Europe Research Team
Michael Pickup and his Barclays colleague extend their winning streak to a second straight year, in part because they provide “well-thought-out recommendations that help us make money,” as one fund manager puts it. The London-based analysts follow 15 stocks, garnering particular praise for their coverage of SBM Offshore, a Netherlands-based company that provides marine services and systems to the offshore oil and gas industries. In November 2012 they judged the shares unfairly beaten down in reaction to temporary cost overruns, so the pair elevated them from underweight all the way to overweight. That turned out to be one day and 16 cents shy of SBM’s lowest-ever closing. The stock took off, and by the end of December 2013, it had shot up 85.2 percent, to €14.80, even while the sector declined by 9.7 percent. Another well-judged call, in the other direction, is the twosome’s January 2013 reduction of French seismic surveying company Cie. Générale de Géophysique–Veritas from equal weight to underweight. The researchers forecast that already soft sales would continue to deteriorate, and they were right. Many major oil companies reduced or delayed capital expenditures last year, driving down demand for the company’s data and equipment, management acknowledged in November. CGG’s shares collapsed, selling off 41.8 percent from the January downgrade through year end, to €12.58, substantially worse than the sector’s 11.6 percent drop. Team leader Pickup, 42, “is a seasoned pro,” asserts another advocate. “Mick knows what he’s doing — and his word should be heeded.” See also Michael Pickup's profile in the 2013 All-Europe Research Team. |
