The buy side says: “Jay is what you wish every sell-side analyst could be.”
Advancing to the winner’s circle for the first time is last year’s No. 2 analyst, Jay Gelb of Barclays Capital. “Jay is extremely thorough; he doesn’t miss anything in his space,” insists one buy-side fan. The 39-year-old analyst, who holds an MBA from Bentley University of Waltham, Massachusetts, which he earned in 1999, initiated coverage of Berkshire Hathaway in April with an equal weight rating, at $120,465. Gelb questioned the Omaha, Nebraska–based investment management firm’s short-term earnings potential, and so far his caution appears to have been justified: The stock had slipped 1.5 percent, to $118,675, by the end of August. During the same period the broad market fell 12.3 percent. “When Berkshire was added to the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, there was a dearth of coverage for the conglomerate; Jay dived in and provided the much-needed coverage,” says one impressed follower. Gelb worked at Prudential Securities before joining Lehman Brothers in 2005; Barclays acquired the North American operations of Lehman Brothers Holdings in September 2008. Gelb “works hard, communicates his ideas clearly and always picks up his phone to answer questions,” applauds one faithful client.
