Industries – Health Care: Third

In third place for a third year running is Rafael Frade. Based in São Paulo, with five stocks under coverage, the Bradesco Corretora analyst is considered “the most up to date on what’s going on in the industry, even with the nonlisted companies,” as one fund manager in New York puts it. In June 2012, Frade relaunched coverage of Qualicorp with an outperform rating, at 16.64 reais, on the belief that its recent acquisitions and partnerships with health plan operators would help it post rapid topline growth. In March the company reported that net profit jumped 18.2 percent year-over-year in 2012, to 69.8 million reais ($30.4 million); it also noted that bad-debt expenses vaulted 82.5 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter, to 9.3 percent of net revenue (up from 6.9 percent). Shares of the São Paulo–based insurance administrator, which had surged to 23.10 reais that month, began to retreat; by mid-July they were trading at 15 reais, for a 9.9 percent life-of-call loss that was roughly in line with the sector’s performance. Frade stands behind the call, confident that Qualicorp will be “a strong performer in the next 12 months.” — Ben Mattlin