In his fourth consecutive showing at the top, Michael Gambardella, 54, burnishes his reputation for having “a knack for timely stock calls,” as one grateful client puts it. The J.P. Morgan analyst initiated coverage on Molycorp — a Greenwood Village, Colorado–based producer of rare earth oxides used in clean-energy technology — in September 2010 with an overweight, at $19.50. Gambardella dubbed it a low-cost producer of undersupplied, high-demand commodities. The following month, with the shares up a whopping 73.8 percent, to $33.89, and ahead of the sector by 66.6 percentage points, he downgraded them to neutral, on valuation — too soon, as it turned out. In February he raised them back to overweight, at $44.63, when the company expanded its capacity. By the end of August, the stock had surged 26.6 percent, to $56.52, trumping the sector by 42.5 percentage points. “Mike has unusual, value-added access to line management — not just senior executives like most others rely on — and his research comes from these high-quality contacts he’s made over the years,” observes one fund manager.
Michael Gambardella J.P. Morgan
The buy side says: “He always gets in touch at just the right time.”