Neil McMahon Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
Although he drops from first place to third, Neil McMahon of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. continues to win praise for the depth and breadth of his research. “His reports have a lot more meat, with more substantiation built into his models, and his questions on conference calls are always the most thoughtful,” marvels one buy-side enthusiast. In June 2009, McMahon upgraded ConocoPhillips from neutral to outperform, at $40.84, believing that the Houston-based company’s renewed emphasis on exploration would increase shareholder returns. In mid-February, after the stock had surged 18.6 percent, to $48.42, and outpaced the sector by 9.3 percentage points, the London-based analyst downgraded it to neutral, on valuation. The downgrade appears to have been premature, however, as the stock kept rising. By early August, when McMahon discontinued coverage on all his stocks to become co-leader with Benjamin Dell (No. 1 in Oil & Gas Exploration & Production and No. 3 in Natural Gas) of AllianceBernstein’s newly created direct energy investment team, ConocoPhillips’s shares had climbed to $57.53.