The buy side says: “If I really need to know the nuts and bolts about a particular issue, I call Dan.”
For four years running, Daniel Ford has held the pole position. The Barclays Capital researcher raised Alliant Energy Corp. from neutral to buy in September 2009, at $25.82, believing that investors were needlessly abandoning the stock after the Madison, Wisconsin–based utility ran afoul of local politicians and community activists by requesting a 13.8 percent rate hike. In April, after the stock had sizzled up 33.9 percent, to $34.57, and outperformed the sector by 35.9 percentage points, the 43-year-old analyst downgraded it to neutral, on valuation. By the end of August, the stock had crept up only 1.3 percent, to $35.02. Ford, who is based in Wells, Maine, “has extensive knowledge on the industry. He not only knows most of the management teams very well, he is also well connected to the regulators, politicians and consumer advocates,” applauds one buy-side backer.
