SECOND TEAM Scott Davis Morgan Stanley
After a year at No. 1, Scott Davis slips one notch to capture second place for Morgan Stanley. “He’s able to identify which companies are most and least likely to see positive changes before their peers,” explains one proponent. Davis resumed coverage of Tyco International in August 2010, several months after the company had completed its acquisition of Brink’s Home Security Holdings. (Morgan Stanley acted as adviser to the latter.) The analyst urged clients to overweight the stock, then at $36.13, citing Tyco’s share-buyback program and possible sale of its underperforming European operations, among other reasons. Shares of the security services provider, which is incorporated in Switzerland and has its operational base in Princeton, New Jersey, had bolted to $51.78 by April before retreating to $41.58 through August, for a gain of 15.1 percent that led the sector by 8.4 percentage points. Davis joined Barclays Capital in September.
