Joel Price was a fast learner. “I never specialized in an industry until October 1973, when the energy crunch came and the market for special situations just fell apart,” he told Institutional Investor in 1975, the same year the Dean Witter & Co. analyst debuted on the All-America Research Team at No. 1 in the newly added Coal sector. By 1980, Price was deemed to have “the best overall grasp of the collective coal industry in the U.S.,” according to one investor. The following year he moved to Rotan Mosle (and took top honors in the sector on behalf of that firm), but he didn’t stay long; in 1982 he joined Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp. and expanded his coverage to include railroads.
From 1985 through 1993, when he retired, Price ranked every year in both Coal and Railroads, earning a career total of 28 appearances and 20 first-team finishes. “Joel has had a long and distinguished career,” one client told II in 1993.
