A.M. (Toni) Sacconaghi |
First TeamA.M. (Toni) Sacconaghi Sanford C. Bernstein second team Benjamin Reitzes, UBS third team Richard Gardner, Citi runners-up Andrew Neff, Bear Stearns; William Shope Jr., JPMorgan |
In first for a sixth straight year, A.M. (Toni) Sacconaghi is “unrivaled for the volume and depth of his research,” says one investor, citing the Sanford C. Bernstein analyst’s extensive coverage of EMC Corp. Sacconaghi, 42, upgraded the Hopkinton, Massachusetts–based provider of data storage services in July 2006, urging clients to buy on a dip after weak quarterly earnings results sent the stock down 11.2 percent in seven days, to $9.83 — “an attractive entry point,” Sacconaghi said. By mid-September 2007 the stock had surged to $19.28, a whopping 96.1 percent gain, compared with 26.0 percent for the sector over the same period. Repeating in second is Benjamin Reitzes of UBS, who is the top-ranked analyst in Imaging Technology. “His stock calls were excellent this year,” says one happy client. Reitzes added EMC and International Business Machines Corp. to his buy list in January. Year-to-date through mid-September the stocks were up 41.7 and 19.4 percent, respectively. Returning to the third team after spending the past two years as runner-up, San Francisco–based Richard Gardner provides “some of the most detailed earnings models in the hardware sector,” says one money manager. The Citi researcher wins praise for his daring call on Dell, which he downgraded to sell in April 2006, saying the Round Rock, Texas–based computer maker was not hitting its revenue targets and would lower prices to drive demand. That July, when the price had fallen 22.8 percent, he upgraded to buy. Since then the stock has risen 19.4 percent, through mid-September 2007. |
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Technology: IT Hardware