William Dong & team UBS
Returning to second place after a year atop the roster, UBS’s ten-strong Taipei-based team led by William Dong covers 80 companies with “a high degree of professionalism,” according to one investor. Last spring, in the midst of volatility from the Japanese earthquake and tsunami and the European credit crisis, the analysts upgraded telecommunications companies from neutral to overweight as “defensive given the stable business and high dividend yield,” they wrote in a March 2011 report. By early March 2012, with Taiwan’s telecoms up 13.5 percent and ahead of its broad market by 16.9 percentage points, the analysts downgraded them to underweight, largely on investors’ growing risk appetite. By the end of that month, TK. “They make timely, accurate recommendations based on honest views rather than following the consensus,” marvels another supporter. The team is bullish on technology hardware manufacturers in anticipation of rising demand for new computers. Favorites include Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., a Taipei-based computer assembler, and Yungkang City’s Catcher Technology Co., which makes computer components. — Ben Mattlin