Rodney Whitehead & team Deutsche
second team Fraser Ramzan & team Nomura
third team Richard Edwards & team Citi
Deutsche’s foursome leaps from third place to capture the crown for the first time in five years — and the first time ever under the guidance of team leader Rodney Whitehead. The 50-year-old analyst, who received a master’s degree in economics from Cambridge University in 1986 and worked as a retailing analyst at Goldman Sachs and UBS Warburg before joining Deutsche in 1998, regularly produces work that is “nothing short of genius,” declares one backer. The team upgraded Signet Jewelers from hold to buy last February, at 514p, on the belief that the Bermuda-domiciled, London-based retailer would gain market share as a faltering economy drove smaller competitors out of business. The stock soared to 1,655p through December, a sparkling 222 percent gain that dulled the luster of the sector’s 42.4 percent advance. Unranked since 2007, Fraser Ramzan’s three-member team at Nomura shoots straight in to second place. The analysts, who are “not afraid to challenge consensus views,” according to one investor, upgraded DSG International from neutral to buy in December 2008, calling shares of the U.K.-based electronics retailer a bargain at 11p. By year-end 2009 the stock had catapulted 231.8 percent, to 36.50p. Although it slips one spot to third place, the three-strong Citi team steered by Richard Edwards continues to garner clients’ praise for providing “timely recommendations and thematic reports,” as one fund manager puts it. Edwards upgraded Kingfisher from hold to buy in January 2009, at 141.10p, on improving sales at the U.K.-based home improvement chain. The stock leapt 62.3 percent, to 229p, through December.
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