THIRD TEAM
Ben Laidler & team J.P. Morgan
The J.P. Morgan foursome guided by New York–based Ben Laidler, who also leads the No. 1 team in Equity Strategy, drops two notches to third place but continues to impress investors with “economic research and strategy that is always accurate and always in-depth,” insists one satisfied client. Among the team’s winning calls of late is a buy rating on First Cash Financial Services — an Arlington, Texas–based outfit that operates pawn shops throughout Mexico. The analysts elevated the stock to top pick in May 2010, at $21.37, citing strong demand for nontraditional finance in Mexico. By late July 2011 the stock had bolted to $43.27, a stunning 102.5 percent gain that bested the Mexican broad market by 87 percentage points.
