The buy side says: “Michael outshines all others when it comes to understanding these companies.”
J.P. Morgan’s Michael Weinstein makes it four in a row in the top spot, thanks in part for being “a really nice guy — but reliably no-nonsense. If a company or even his entire universe is in trouble, he will not mince words. That’s the most precious thing of all, as far as we are concerned: true honesty and clarity,” as one fund manager puts it. In a dismal year — the sector fell 11.4 percent in the 12 months through August and lagged the broad market by 14.2 percentage points — the 40-year-old analyst issued valuation-based downgrades on some longtime favorites, including Boston Scientific Corp. of Natick, Massachusetts, and Minneapolis-based Medtronic. Boston Scientific, a maker of cardiac-rhythm-management devices, he lowered to neutral in March, at $7.78, and by late August the stock had tumbled 33.3 percent, to $5.19. Medtronic, which manufactures defibrillators and other instruments, he cut to neutral in August, at $37.43, and by the end of the month, it had dropped 16 percent, to $31.45. “These were hard calls for us and, I suspect, for him — but his conviction remained supremely grounded in the fundamentals and the macro story,” explains one appreciative investor. A pension fund manager concurs: “Medtronic was a real heartbreaker, but he really pounded the table against it!”
