2016年整个欧洲研究Team: Germany, No. 3: Gunnar Cohrs & team

Gunnar Cohrs & team

Berenberg

First-place appearances: 0

Total appearances: 7

Team debut: 2007

Berenberg’s troupe under the direction ofGunnar Cohrs, 47, dips one position to third place. Even so, its coverage of 116 German stocks continues to be popular with a loyal client base. The 89 London-based analysts “probably do the best job of managing corporate relations of any of the German brokerages,” one admirer remarks. “They’re close to all the companies, and they do a good job at providing access for investors. And, of course, no one else provides so broad a coverage of midsize and small stocks across all sectors.” As the world’s largest provider of dialysis products and services, with a market cap of €23.8 billion ($25.8 billion), Hesse’s Fresenius Medical Care is certainly a large cap — and one of the team’s favorite players. The company now “dominates most of its core business areas,” says Cohrs, and is “leveraging its expertise in managing high-cost patients and diversifying into hospital services, risk management and health plan businesses.” This healthy position followed “several challenging years” in which burgeoning costs outstripped meager increases in reimbursement rates, he notes. Fresenius “has turned a corner, with its core dialysis business on a better growth track due to better pricing visibility in the U.S. and improved cost control.” Berenberg’s researchers project that primary operations will “drive high-single-digit earnings growth, with the new business areas lifting growth to low double digits,” the team leader advises, and management’s recent investments in care coordination will begin to pay off. Trading at €72.11 in mid-January, Fresenius’ shares had climbed 38.2 percent during the trailing 12-month period, compared with the 4.9 percent decline in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange’s DAX index, and they forecast a further rise to €92 over the next year to 18 months.