Myles Allsop UBS
The buy side says: “Myles Allsop is the best paper analyst on the Street by a mile.”
For a fifth year running, solo analyst Myles Allsop of UBS wears the crown. Allsop, 36, earns high marks for last February’s upgrade of midcap British packager D.S. Smith from neutral to buy, as a bargain at 112.90p, on the imminent installation of new CEO Miles Roberts. In early December, after the stock had vaulted 77.8 percent, to 200.70p, and outdistanced the sector by a stunning 64.1 percentage points, he downgraded it to neutral, on valuation. It ended that month at 202.20p. An August upgrade of Norske Skogindustrier from neutral to buy, at 7.66 Norwegian kroner, also pleased clients. Allsop’s expectation that rising newsprint prices would help raise the Lysaker, Norway–based pulp producer’s shares proved right. By the end of the year, they had jumped 80.8 percent, to Nkr13.85, and were ahead of the sector by a whopping 69.3 points. “Myles is the first to highlight inflection points, and the accuracy of his recommendations makes him the best source on the sector,” declares one backer.