The buy side says: “Nothing gets by Toni — absolutely nothing.”
A.M. (Toni) Sacconaghi, who takes the No. 1 position for a ninth consecutive year, “is the most detail-oriented analyst in the hardware sector — he gets all the industry and corporate data, scrubs it multiple ways and reaches valuable, investable conclusions,” according to one devoted buy-sider. The Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst reiterated his outperform rating on Apple in February, at $195.96, underscoring the Cupertino, California–based consumer-electronics company’s robust cash flow and high cash balance of $40 per share. By the end of August, the share price was up a juicy 24.1 percent, to $243.10, and was ahead of the sector by 24.7 percentage points. Sacconaghi, 45, remains bullish.
