Vincent Laurencin & team Exane BNP Paribas

The buy side says: “They are very good at delving into the fundamentals on the financial statements.”

Repeating at No. 1 is the Exane BNP Paribas troupe of 40 Paris-­based analysts guided by Vincent Laurencin, 34. “They’ve got very good relationships with French companies, so they provide good corporate access,” observes one portfolio manager. Among the team’s most-­valued calls of the past year is a March upgrade from neutral to buy on Safran, an aerospace-­and-­defense conglomerate headquartered in Paris, on the belief that “the market was underestimating the prospects for future aftermarket demand” for aircraft and ­helicopter engines and parts. By late December the stock had soared 45.7 percent, from €18.19 to €26.50, and soared past France’s broad market by 45.6 percentage points. ­Laurencin’s team “has a lot of people who are locally based, and they probably do the best overall job covering pan-­European stocks,” declares one satisfied ­client.