The buy side says: “His views move the stocks more than any other analyst covering the sector.”
J.P. Morgan’s Joseph Nadol, 38, takes top honors for a second year running. In September 2009, Nadol highlighted his long-standing overweight rating on Precision Castparts Corp., at $98.39, telling clients that the Portland, Oregon–based aerospace parts supplier would increase its market dominance through its acquisition of Carlton Forge Works, an engine-components manufacturer headquartered in Paramount, California; the deal was concluded that month. PCC’s stock surged 15 percent, to $113.18, and outperformed the sector by 12.7 percentage points, through August. An August 2008 downgrade from overweight to neutral on General Dynamics Corp., at $88.85, largely on declining sales of its combat systems, also proved prescient. Shares of the Falls Church, Virginia–based military-vehicle provider had plunged 37.1 percent, to $55.87, by the end of August 2010; during the same period the sector fell 17.4 percent. “Joe is more knowledgeable and has better ideas than anyone else in the space,” asserts one impressed investor.
