Thomas Wadewitz J.P. Morgan
second team Edward Wolfe Wolfe Research
third team Kenneth Hoexter BofA Merrill Lynch
“Thorough, timely and responsive” is how one portfolio manager describes Thomas Wadewitz, who rises one rung to capture the crown for the first time. The J.P. Morgan analyst urged clients to buy FedEx Corp. in June, saying shares of the Memphis-based express shipper were a bargain at $50.05. By late August the stock had flown to $68.71, delivering a gain of 37.3 percent that outpaced the sector by 18.8 percentage points. Wadewitz, 42, earned master’s degrees in management and chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1995 and worked as a railroad analyst at Bear, Stearns & Co. before moving to J.P. Morgan in 2005.
After six straight years at No. 1, Edward Wolfe slips to second place but continues to win acclaim from clients as the “hardest-working” and “most plugged-in” analyst on the sector. Wolfe, who launched his own firm, Wolfe Research, last year after leaving Bear Stearns, precisely called the 12-month low on Pacer International in March, at $1.59, when he issued a valuation-driven upgrade to peer-perform. In July, after shares of the Concord, California–based trucking and logistics provider had zoomed 49.1 percent (8.1 percentage points ahead of the sector), to $2.37, Wolfe upgraded Pacer to outperform. Through August the stock zipped 74.7 percent, to $4.14, leaving the sector’s 8.7 percent advance in the dust.
Kenneth Hoexter lands in third place for a third straight year. In March the BofA Merrill researcher upgraded Union Pacific Corp. from neutral to buy, at $37.18, on valuation. Shares of the Omaha, Nebraska–based railroad had steamed ahead to $59.81 by August 31. “Ken reads the railways like no one else,” trumpets one fan.
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