Shinsuke Iwasa UBS
second team Takayoshi Koike Deutsche
third team Kenichiro Yoshida Goldman Sachs
Shinsuke Iwasa, 37, holds the top slot for a second year running. Clients praise the UBS analyst’s “precise analyses” and “steady performance in good times and bad.” Iwasa told investors in September 2008 to buy shares of Jupiter Telecommunications Co., at ¥76,000, citing the telephone, television and high-speed Internet access provider’s growing subscriber base, among other factors. The stock shot up to ¥104,200 through February 2010, a gain of 37.1 percent that bested the sector by 48.8 points.
Deutsche Securities’ Takayoshi Koike, who finished third in 2008 but failed to rank last year, captures the No. 2 spot. Koike makes “strong and accurate predictions,” notes one appreciative investor. Case in point: The analyst highlighted his long-standing buy recommendation on Nippon Television Network Corp. in June, dubbing the shares a bargain at ¥11,200. By the end of February, NTV’s shares had climbed 9.3 percent, to ¥12,240.
Kenichiro Yoshida drops one notch to third place; the Goldman Sachs researcher is also ranked second in Trading Companies. Strong growth prospects and an attractive valuation prompted Yoshida to recommend Jupiter Telecom in May, at ¥65,200, and through February the stock had surged 59.8 percent. Fans hail the analyst for being “consistently accurate” and “acutely attuned to the market.”
