A.M. (Toni) Sacconaghi Sanford C. Bernstein
second team Benjamin Reitzes Barclays
third team Richard Gardner Citi
For an eighth year in a row, A.M. (Toni) Sacconaghi of Sanford C. Bernstein finishes in first place. “He is very detail-oriented — he analyzes things to the nth degree,” observes one longtime client. Sacconaghi, 44, picked Apple to outperform in October 2008, telling investors that the market rout had left the shares “overly discounted,” at $96.80, and the Cupertino, California–based company would report “huge deferred revenue growth associated with the iPhone” in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009. Apple’s stock had jumped a juicy 73.8 percent, to $168.21, by late August and outpaced the sector by 31.1 percentage points.
Benjamin Reitzes of Barclays Capital takes second place for a fourth consecutive year. “His proprietary channel checks have been very useful and accurate,” asserts one buy-side enthusiast. In June those channel checks showed that demand for EMC Corp.’s data storage products was picking up, so Reitzes upgraded the stock from equal weight to overweight. Shares of the Hopkinton, Massachusetts–based company gained 26.4 percent, from $12.58 to $15.90, through August.
It’s three straight years in third place for Richard Gardner of Citi. The San Francisco–based analyst publishes research that is “concise and highlights the most important issues, which is extremely important given the complex nature of the large-cap companies in tech hardware,” attests one investor. Gardner upgraded Synnex Corp. of Fremont, California, from hold to buy in January, saying shares of the information-technology product distributor were undervalued at $12.35. The stock bolted 102.3 percent, to $24.99, in early July, and Gardner downgraded it to hold — a little too soon. Synnex shares had advanced 18.6 percent further, to $29.65, by August 31.
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