The buy side says: “Ronald Barone is my encyclopedia for the natural-gas sector.”
Dallas-based Ronald Barone finishes in first place for a fourth year running, but that doesn’t begin to describe the UBS analyst’s track record: He has ranked in this sector and its predecessor every year since 1975. Barone has “greater insight into what moves the stocks than other analysts,” insists one investor. That insight was on display last October, when the 67-year-old researcher recommended Questar Corp., telling clients the Salt Lake City–based company would spin off its high-growth (and deregulated) exploration-and-production operations so it could focus on its core natural-gas business. In April, when Questar announced it was considering doing just as Barone had predicted, Questar’s stock surged. By late August it had shot up 28.7 percent since Barone’s prediction, from a post-spin-off adjusted price of $12.65 to $16.28, and outperformed the sector by 29.9 percentage points. “Ron so thoroughly knows the industry, the players and the mechanics of the business that his insight is invaluable, and he never loses sight of the fact that the job is to make stock calls — not to just build relationships with managements,” declares one enthusiast.
