Roderick Bourgeois
Roderick Bourgeois Sanford C. Bernstein
SECOND TEAM
Adam Frisch UBS
THIRD TEAM
Tien-Tsin Huang JPMorgan
Roderick Bourgeois, in first place for a third straight year, “simply outworks his competition,” insists one money manager. The 39-year-old Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst has maintained a yearlong outperform rating on long-standing favorite Accenture, a Bermuda-based information technology consulting firm, contending that “the IT consulting market is much less sensitive to the economy than commonly feared.” Year-to-date through mid-September, Accenture’s shares outpaced the sector by 4.8 percentage points. In November, Bourgeois issued a contrarian upgrade of Electronic Data Systems Corp., at $19.37, on valuation. In May, Hewlett-Packard Co. announced that it would acquire the Plano, Texas–based computer services provider for $25 a share. The deal closed in August. In second place for a third consecutive year is Adam Frisch of UBS, whose “understanding of the payment-processing sector is especially distinguishing,” says one buy-side backer. Case in point: Frisch’s recommendation of Purchase, New York–based MasterCard in May 2007, at $134.14, on strong revenue growth coupled with cost-cutting initiatives. By mid-September 2008 the stock had skyrocketed to $223.82, a gain of 66.9 percent that outperformed the sector by 71.4 percentage points. Tien-Tsin Huang of JPMorgan Securities debuts in third place. “He really digs in deep yet still finds time for strong personal service,” marvels one investor. Huang downgraded ExlService Holdings, a New York–headquartered processor of mortgage applications and insurance claims, to sell in January, at $19.71, citing concerns about the company’s exposure to weakening financial services sectors. The share price had plunged 42.4 percent, to $11.36, by mid-September.
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