Runner-up last year, Credit Suisse’s Glen Santangelo rises to third place. “Nobody defends stocks better than Glen,” insists one supporter. “When stocks are under pressure, he is quick to write a note sorting out fact from fiction.” The sector has performed well this year, with most of its subsectors far outperforming the broad market, Santangelo notes. “We continue to think the set-up in the second half is good as the stocks will benefit from health care reform, an accelerating patent expiration schedule,” he says, “and because most of the stocks are still trading at reasonable valuations.” Santangelo and investors agree that his call on Cincinnati-based Omnicare is a standout. He upgraded the drug wholesaler from neutral to outperform in February 2012, at $33.26, on its potential to meet or better consensus estimates. In March 2013, with the shares at $37.92 but lagging the sector by 17.3 percentage points, he pounded the table. The previous month, during Omnicare’s fourth-quarter 2012 earnings conference, CEO John Workman advised that longer-term adjusted earnings per share should grow from 5 to 7 percent over the next several years. Santangelo believed that forecast didn’t fully reflect potential adjusted-EPS growth from capital deployment, in line with recent levels. “We viewed the sell-off in the wake of those comments as overblown and a significant opportunity,” Santangelo says. Since March the shares rocketed 43.4 percent through August, to $54.37, while the sector was flat. — Leslie Kramer |
Leslie Kramer John Workman Credit Suisse Glen Santangelo Cincinnati
