Jeffrey Sprague | Jeffrey Sprague Citi SECOND TEAM John Inch Merrill Lynch THIRD TEAM Robert Cornell Barclays RUNNERS-UP Scott Davis Morgan Stanley ; C. Stephen Tusa Jr. JPMorgan |
Extending his reign to a ninth consecutive year, Jeffrey Sprague “steps out from the consensus,” notes one money manager; another client says the Citi analyst “doesn’t shoot from the hip and make baseless recommendations — his opinions are well supported by solid research.” Sprague, 47, upgraded Charlotte, North Carolina–based SPX Corp., a midcap maker of high-technology industrial products, to buy in July 2007, at $84.58, on strong global infrastructure demand. The stock had catapulted to $107.40 by mid-September 2008, a 27.0 percent gain that far outpaced the sector’s 7.7 percent loss. Repeating in second place is John Inch of Merrill Lynch, who pleases clients by “not sugarcoating or diluting his conclusions,” according to one advocate. In January, Inch downgraded Rockwell Automation to sell, dubbing management’s earnings guidance “overly aggressive.” Shares of the Milwaukee-based power-solutions provider had tumbled 32.9 percent by mid-September. Robert Cornell, who moved to Barclays Capital after its parent acquired Lehman Brothers last month, holds steady in third place. Cornell “is the group historian,” says one longtime client. Other investors praise Cornell’s long-term overweight on Emerson Electric Co., first recommended all the way back in September 2002, when the St. Louis–based company began transforming itself from a components manufacturer into a supplier of technology-based industrial solutions. Emerson’s shares outperformed the sector by 2.0 percentage points year-to-date through mid-September.
