Inigo Fraser-Jenkins & team, Nomura International
The seven-member team at Nomura International run by Inigo Fraser-Jenkins falls one place to No. 3. Fraser-Jenkins receives compliments from one loyalist for “anticipating crucial issues very well and applying a thorough and thoughtful analysis to them,” while another client observes that the London-based team’s research “originates from firm conviction, rather than prevailing vogue.” One such conviction: that mean reversion of factor valuations is likely to work in 2012, meaning that overweighting value may begin to pay off, especially in Europe. The researchers also reason that momentum looks expensive and will underperform this year. “The timing of catalysts for mean-reversion calls can always be difficult,” Fraser-Jenkins remarks. “But factor dispersion has reached these extreme levels before, for a variety of reasons, and it has usually paid off to take a mean-reversion stance.”