Health Care – Pharmaceuticals/Major: 2012 First

Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.’s Timothy Anderson tops the roster for a fourth consecutive year. “He has a knack for quantifying the risks and rewards of a drug and providing thoughtful analysis of timely issues,” according to one client. The San Francisco–based analyst is cautiously optimistic on the sector thanks to slowly improving pipelines and declining costs, among other factors that are driving a return to modest levels of growth for many names. Anderson, 44, published a report on Eli Lilly and Co. in early December predicting that the stock, then at $37.50, would climb as the market considered the upside potential of the Indianapolis-based outfit’s Alzheimer’s treatment solanezumab — but he kept his rating at market perform. In August, Eli Lilly reported that some patients had shown slight improvement in clinical trials; by the end of that month, the shares had risen 19.8 percent, to $44.91, and outpaced the sector by 6.2 percentage points. Anderson maintains his current stance, saying Lilly does not yet warrant a buy rating.