Carlos Peyrelongue & team BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research
The buy side says: “When Carlos makes a call on Mexico, investors listen.”
The four-member BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research team vaults from runner-up to first place. Guided by Carlos Peyrelongue, who also leads the top-ranked team in Cement & Construction, the Mexico City–based analysts reiterated their underperform rating on the American depositary receipts of Cemex in January, at $10.56, warning clients that the Monterrey-based building-materials manufacturer would face earnings pressure owing to the bleak prospects for recovery in the U.S. housing market this year. By late July, Cemex shares had tumbled 33.3 percent, to $7.04, and trailed Mexico’s broad market by 29.6 percentage points. Peyrelongue, 42, earned an MBA at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business in 1998, then joined Santander as a mutual fund manager before moving to Merrill Lynch a decade ago. “Carlos is someone I really trust,” declares one backer. “He doesn’t change on a whim.”
