The buy side says: “Ed’s insights are precise and easy to digest.”
For a record 31 consecutive years, Ed Hyman of ISI Group takes top honors. With the aid of an expanded staff of bottom-up, fundamental sector analysts, the 65-year-old economist is “continuing to create a world-class organization from the rubble of Wall Street’s once-venerated sell side,” observes one portfolio manager. Many clients favor his frequent industry surveys — of staffing companies, manufacturers and so forth — for “a timely read on business sentiments,” notes one grateful reviewer. Investors also appreciate Hyman’s willingness to admit when he’s wrong, as he was in May, when global government stimulus efforts and an upturn in business inventories prompted him to declare a turning point in the economy. The following month he reversed his position, largely because of the worsening debt crisis in Europe and its impact on the U.S. stock market; the Dow Jones industrial average reported its worst May performance since 1940. “When the data changed he reflected it in his outlook rather than stubbornly holding on to the earlier forecast, as others might,” proclaims one loyalist.
