Ben Laidler & team J.P. Morgan
The buy side says: “Ben Laidler thoroughly understands the drivers that move stocks.”
J.P. Morgan’s ten-member troupe jumps from runner-up all the way to the top spot. This year the New York–based team is guided solely by Ben Laidler (who also leads the top-ranked team in Equity Strategy); former co-leader Alfredo Thorne left the firm last fall. In December the analysts initiated coverage of First Cash Financial Services of Arlington, Texas, with an overweight rating, citing the Nasdaq Stock Market–traded pawn shop operator’s rapid expansion throughout Mexico and the southwestern U.S. and attractive valuation at $20.28. The stock had surged 18.2 percent, to $23.98, by the end of July; during the same period, Mexico’s broad market advanced just 1.1 percent. Laidler, 38, who earned a master of philosophy degree in economics at Cambridge University in 1994, joined J.P. Morgan in 2007 after eight years following Latin America for UBS. “He understands what I’m looking for,” asserts one growth-oriented investor.
