TipRanks, the world’s leading analyst ranking service, has identified the top analysts covering UK markets in 2020. The company measures and ranks financial experts on their stock recommendations to bring transparency to the markets.
The leading fintech platform has seen a drastic increase in the number of users using its stock research tools throughout this year’s market volatility and social restrictions. New users in the UK have increased by 150%, a number which is expected to grow with the addition of UK shares to the platform this month.
The best performing analysts are those with the highest average return and overall success rate on their recommendations measured over a 12-month period. The statistical significance of analyst ratings is also considered by the algorithms which track over 90,000 financial experts, including more than 7,000 analysts.
These are the top five analysts covering the UK and their recent recommendations for shares listed on the London Stock Exchange:
Andrew Ross, Barclays
Andrew Ross from Barclays takes the top spot. Based in London, he has a 71% success rate on 126 ratings and an average return of 21.2%.
In early November he maintained a Buy rating for e-commerce fashion and lifestyle company, Zalando. The company has benefited from the shift towards digital offerings during the coronavirus pandemic. His Buy rating for the stock in March has gained over 105% to date, and he believes the share can continue to rise with his current price target of €95.77, indicating over 20% upside.
Alex Brooks, Canaccord Genuity
In second place is Alex Brooks from Canaccord Genuity. He has a 59% success rate on 344 ratings with a 12.7% average return.
Brooks covers Basic Materials and recently maintained a Buy rating for Ncondezi Energy. His 15 pence price target indicates 200% upside. Ncondezi recently reached an agreement wih China Machinery Engineering Corporation for a US$1.8m programme. His most profitable Buy rating of the year comes from oil services firm Lamprell plc which has gained 245% since his Buy rating in April.
Silvia Cuneo, Deutsche Bank
Silvia Cuneo from Deutsche Bank is in third place with an 80% success rate on 30 ratings and an average return of 48.7%.
She too recently maintained a Buy rating for Zalando, with a €91.00 price target which indicates a more modest 15.35% upside when compared to number one, Andrew Ross. Her most profitable Buy rating of 2020 was made in June for British data and analytics company Ascential plc which has returned over 39%.
Kai Korschelt, Canaccord Genuity
Canaccord Genuity features again with Kai Korschelt. Specialising in the technology sector he has a 60% success rate on 110 ratings with a 20.9% average return.
His Buy rating for the British ad-tech company Mirriad Advertising plc in May this year has gained over 424% to date. In November he maintained a Buy rating for British fintech company PayPoint which announced earlier in the month that it will acquire two card payment and card terminal leasing firms.
Guillermo Lojo, UBS
In fifth place is Guillermo Lojo from UBS with a 76% success rate on 98 ratings and 17.3% average return.
In April he issued a Buy rating for Vestas Wind Systems which has since gained close to 120%. He recently maintained a Buy rating for French multinational rolling stock manufacturer Alstom SA. In November the company announced that it will supply transport to Romania, Morocco and Italy.
Uri Gruenbaum, CEO, Tip Ranks commented, “I am excited that retail investors in the UK and around the world can access our financial accountability service and can now see the historical performance of any analyst covering the London Stock Exchange. The UK launch of our platform is a significant milestone in our global expansion and is our first market outside of North America available to our direct clients. Investors in the UK can use our multi award-winning research platform to tap into stocks in the UK, US and Canada with more countries coming soon.”
“Our goal is to level the playing field for individual investors in the UK by offering them access to institutional-level tools at an affordable cost. We track and measure over 800 professional analysts from 58 firms who cover UK listed companies.”
