Steven DeSanctis BofA Merrill Lynch
second team Lori Calvasina Citi
third team Pankaj Patel Credit Suisse
Steven DeSanctis, 41, captures top honors for a second straight year. The BofA Merrill analyst wins praise for his ability to “highlight future trends and anticipate market shifts,” in the words of one buy-side fan. Case in point: DeSanctis, who does not recommend specific stocks but focuses instead on sector trends, told investors at the start of the year that small caps were likely to outperform large caps, and he recommended overweighting small-cap growth and underweighting small-cap value to catch the most upside. He stood by this recommendation even as the Russell 2000 small-cap index tumbled 31.3 percent and underperformed the large-cap index from January through early March. Since the market hit bottom, small caps have shot up 66.7 percent, besting large caps by 14.8 percentage points, through August.
Citi’s Lori Calvasina, who repeats in second place, is hailed for “polling investors in the space, which is unique data not offered by her peers,” according to one fund manager. Calvasina told clients in January to be prepared to shift toward small caps, and in mid-March confirmed that it was time to move, owing to signs of recovery in the space such as increased M&A activity and earnings-per-share revisions.
Pankaj Patel debuts in third place; the Credit Suisse analyst is also ranked second in Quantitative Research. In March the analyst created a basket of 17 small-cap stocks likely to outperform. By August 31, Patel’s selections had gained, on average, 73 percent, compared with the 56.4 percent advance of the Russell 2000 index.
Click here to see the All-America Research Team rankings.
