Craig Huber Barclays
second team Alexia Quadrani J.P. Morgan
third team Michael Nathanson Sanford C. Bernstein
It’s four straight years on top for Craig Huber of Barclays Capital. Huber, 42, has been bearish on newspapers for the past five years, owing to declining advertising revenue and tight margins, and this stance has won praise from money managers, who credit him with “prescience of major industry moves” and “making investors money.” Huber’s bearishness proved to be the right play again this year: For the 12 months through August, Gannett Co. of McLean, Virginia, tumbled 51.4 percent; Sacramento, California’s McClatchy Co. plunged 45.2 percent; and New York Times Co. fell 41.4 percent. During the same period the sector slid 27.7 percent. Huber left Barclays in August and will join Access 342, a Stamford, Connecticut–based independent research firm, next month.
J.P. Morgan’s Alexia Quadrani holds steady in second place, for a sixth straight year. “Her weekly piece on client wins and losses is a must-read,” says one enthusiastic backer. Quadrani upgraded Arbitron to overweight in March, at $13.81, on valuation. In late April, after shares of the Columbia, Maryland–based market research company had catapulted 57.3 percent, to $21.73, she told clients to take profits. The stock had slipped to $18.32 by late August.
Michael Nathanson of Sanford C. Bernstein debuts in third place; he is also No. 1 in Entertainment. Applauded by one investor for his “strong, calculated and unbiased views,” Nathanson downgraded New York’s Omnicom Group from outperform to market perform in July 2008. Through August 2009 the stock dropped 15.2 percent; the broad market fell 19.2 percent.
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