John Rex |
John Rex JPMorgan SECOND TEAM Joshua Raskin Barclays THIRD TEAM Charles Boorady Citi RUNNERS-UP Matthew Borsch Goldman Sachs ; Justin Lake UBS |
John Rex joined JPMorgan Securities in June, when it absorbed Bear, Stearns & Co., and “did not miss a beat — he stays at the top of his game,” says one money manager. Rex, 46, also remains at the top of his sector, a position he holds for a fifth year running. After having been bullish on the companies he covers for the past seven years, the analyst downgraded them to underperform in March, reasoning that rising costs would cut into profits. By mid-September, Health Net of Woodland Hills, California, had fallen 23.5 percent, UnitedHealth Group of Minnetonka, Minnesota, had tumbled 22.5 percent, and Bethesda, Maryland’s Coventry Health Care was down 15.9 percent. Overall the sector slipped 7.7 percent during the period. In second for a fourth straight year, Joshua Raskin told clients in January to buy HealthSpring of Nashville, Tennessee, calling shares of the Medicare-oriented HMO undervalued at $18.96. The stock price had risen to $21.05 by mid-September — “a great call, leveraging his previous work on Medicare,” says one happy investor. Raskin moved to Barclays Capital after its parent acquired Lehman Brothers last month. Clients say Charles Boorady of Citi, in third place for a fourth straight year, goes “as far off the beaten path as necessary” to generate “solid ideas.” Boorady upgraded MedcoHealth Solutions in April, saying shares of the Franklin Lakes, New Jersey–based pharmacy benefits manager were a bargain at $43.76. By mid-September the stock had shot up 15.6 percent, to $50.60.
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