JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s stock research group won the top slot in Institutional Investor magazine's 39th annual ranking for the first time, breaking Barclays PLC's two-year winning streak.
JPMorgan Chase, a New York banking company, had 46 analysts on the list, two more than last year, the magazine said. Institutional Investor said the rankings were dominated this year by analysts who best understood global economic developments such as U.S. health-care and financial reform, Europe's government debt crisis and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Barclays of London was voted second, with 43 analysts on the list, compared with 46 last year. It won in 2008 and 2009, and it owns the U.S. operations of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which was ranked highest during the five preceding years.
Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch global research unit held third place; Credit Suisse Group AG was fourth and UBS AG fifth.
Morgan Stanley had the biggest climb in the top 10, rising from ninth place to seventh after placing 24 analysts on the list up from 16. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. slipped to 10th, from eighth place, with 10 analysts. Both are based in New York.
The magazine surveyed 3,500 investors at 970 companies, with assets of $10.2 trillion, to produce its rankings of stock analysts.
