Hitoshi Shin UBS
second team Masaya Yamasaki Nomura
third team Yukihiko Shimada Mitsubishi UFJ
In first place for a sixth straight year, Hitoshi Shin of UBS provides an “accurate perspective about industrial trends,” according to one loyal client. Shin, 45, raised Toshiba Corp. to top pick in March 2009, at ¥247, telling clients that the semiconductors market was hitting bottom and that even though the chip maker’s balance sheet had deteriorated in recent years because of aggressive investments, those investments had made it one of the dominant suppliers in the NAND flash memory market. Toshiba’s stock had sizzled up 114.6 percent, to ¥530, by October, and the analyst downgraded it to neutral, on valuation. Since then it dropped 16 percent, to ¥455, through February.
Nomura’s Masaya Yamasaki rises one rung to second place. Praised for his “levelheaded analysis,” as one fund manager puts it, Yamasaki upgraded computer hardware and information-technology services provider Fujitsu from neutral to buy last April, at ¥420, on management’s decision to pursue the development of advanced semiconductor processes through joint ventures and outsourcing, rather than going it alone. By late February the stock had surged 37.4 percent, to ¥577, and led the sector by 22.9 points.
Yukihiko Shimada advances from runner-up to third. Rising profits prompted the Mitsubishi UFJ analyst to upgrade dynamic random-access memory developer Elpida Memory and Fuji Electric Holdings Co., which manufactures generators and industrial pumps, from neutral to outperform in August. Through February the stocks led the sector by 21.8 and 21.3 points, respectively.
