SECOND TEAM
Philip Middleton & team BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research
Philip Middleton, who is “very knowledgeable, open to debate and able to make clients money,” according to one portfolio manager, steers the BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research team to second place for a second consecutive year. The three-member crew reiterated its buy rating on IG Group Holdings, a London-based financial-spread betting firm, in January 2010, at 372.50p. The analysts believed the firm would enjoy robust growth throughout the year, and they were right. In June the company reported pretax profits for fiscal 2010, which ended May, of £157 million ($226.7 million) — well above consensus estimates of £146 million. By the end of the year, IG’s stock had raced ahead 36.9 percent, to 510p.