Felipe Mattar & team Barclays Capital
The buy side says: “Felipe always has insights into markets.”
The Barclays Capital trio under São Paulo–based Felipe Mattar, 36, rules the roost for a second year running. Mattar, who “understands not only the companies but also the regulations and political developments that impact the sector,” as one portfolio manager puts it, and his colleagues pounded the table in March 2010 on Cia. de Saneamento Básico do Estado de São Paulo, at 30.70 reais, after the state-owned water treatment and sanitation services provider reported that year-over-year net income had skyrocketed from R63.6 million ($40.5 million) in 2008 to a whopping R1.37 billion in 2009, and earnings per share had catapulted from R0.28 to R6.03. (The team had been urging clients to overweight the stock since initiating coverage of Sabesp back in August 2009.) By late July 2011 the shares had sizzled to R46.30, a 50.8 percent advance that trounced the sector by a remarkable 48.5 percentage points. In July 2010 the first-teamers added Light to their list of top picks after shares of the Rio de Janeiro–based electricity supplier had dipped to R18.82. (It, too, was initiated at overweight in August 2009, as undervalued at R18.76.) The stock sparked up 47.7 percent since being deemed a top pick, to R27.80, and beat the sector by 44.5 points, through July 2011.