The buy side says: “George is a strong analyst who has been covering the packaging space longer than anyone I know.”
George Staphos of BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research is No. 1 for a third straight year. Staphos, 45, “does excellent work and is a solid resource,” according to one longtime client. In February the analyst upgraded AptarGroup — a producer of pumps, aerosol valves and other dispensing systems for the food and beverage, fragrance and pharmaceuticals industries — from neutral to buy. Staphos believed that the Crystal Lake, Illinois–based company was on the heels of a strong earnings report and that customers’ orders and interest levels in new product launches were rebounding. He also liked the company’s low debt level. The stock had jumped from $37.61 to $41.65 by the end of August, a gain of 10.7 percent that outperformed the broad market by 13.4 percentage points.
