J.P. Morgan
The buy side says: “Jamie times the industry trends better than anybody in his peer group.”
Jamie Baker of J.P. Morgan makes it a hat trick, capturing top honors for a third year in a row. “He gives you tons of details, and he’s very thorough,” says one investor. In a September 2009 report, “Fundamentals on the Mend, Profits in the Distance,” the 42-year-old analyst turned bullish on the sector, arguing that the worst of the recession was over and that the airlines industry was poised for prosperity in 2010. Since then the sector outpaced the broad market by 31.9 percentage points, through August. Among the stocks Baker urged clients to buy was Chicago’s UAL Corp., parent company of United Air Lines, at $6.45. By late August the stock had flown to $21.20, a jaw-dropping 228.7 percent advance.