Technology, Media & Telecommunications – Telecom Services: Second

 Craig Moffett Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

Craig Moffett slips to second place; the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. researcher is also No. 1 in Cable & Satellite (for a seventh consecutive year). “He can often spot trends and how they are apt to shape the future of the industry ahead of his peers,” asserts one loyalist. Moffett upgraded Leap Wireless International from neutral to outperform in September 2011, after a summer sell-off had driven the price down to $6.99. The stock bolted 50.9 percent, to $10.55, and trumped the sector by 44.6 percentage points in early March, when the analyst cut it back to neutral. By the end of August, shares of the San Diego–based digital wireless services provider had tumbled 48.2 percent, to $5.47. “The critical question going forward is whether recent improvements in profitability in the sector are secular or cyclical. We believe they are cyclical and will reverse by the end of 2012,” Moffett says. “With the stocks priced to perfection right now, that’s a recipe for a rough correction.”