Alexander Hugh, Nicholas Nelson & team UBS

The buy side says: “Their reports are excellent.”

Rising one rung to claim the top spot for UBS is the 49-­analyst troupe co-­led by Alexander Hugh, 35, and Nicholas Nelson, 38. “They’re better informed than their peers,” asserts one loyalist. The analysts added Ashtead Group to their list of top picks in April, at 99.10p, on the strength of the London-­based industrial-­equipment rental concerns’ growth prospects. By year-end the stock had rocketed 74.5 percent, to 172.90p, and outpaced the U.K. broad market by 72.4 points. Hugh earned a degree in law at the University of Leeds in 1998 and worked as an analyst covering small-cap companies at Cazenove before joining UBS in 2005. Nelson, who received a master’s degree in English literature from Cambridge University in 1994, was an equity strategist at Credit Suisse until 2005, when he joined UBS. • •