Tobias Levkovich
Chief market strategist
Smith Barney
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Institutional Investor last year named Levkovich one of the best big-picture analysts on Wall Street, and it's easy to see why.
Soon after becoming a market strategist for Salomon Smith Barney in 2001, Levkovich correctly predicted that consumers would prop up the economy and carry it out of a recession. And he rightly noted that overcapacity still hangs over telecom and technology stocks. His prescience earned him a runner-up ranking last year for Institutional Investor's All-America Research Team.
These days, Tobias Levkovich likes cyclical companies that will benefit from an economic recovery. His picks for this year's Smart Money Pundit Watch include financials such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America and J.P. Morgan; hotel chains Hilton and Starwood; and media stocks Viacom, Walt Disney and AOL Time Warner. He was also upbeat about defense, machinery/manufacturing and conglomerate stocks.
Before Salomon hired him, Levkovich was an assistant vice president in L.F. Rothschilds research department. He has a bachelor's degree from Concordia University.
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Martin Cohen
President
Cohen & Steers Capital Management
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» Read about real estate investment trusts
» See Cohen's picks from his July 26, 2002 appearance on Wall $treet Week with FORTUNE
Think of Cohen as a pioneer in modern real estate investing.
Cohen & Steers Capital Management was one of the first funds established specifically for real estate investment trusts after the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The company has since become one of the leading managers of real estate securities portfolios for institutional investors, and also has a family of real estate mutual funds, including Cohen & Steers Realty Shares, the largest open-end real estate mutual fund in the United States.
After lean years in the late 1990s, when REITs were left behind during the stock market bubble, Cohen & Steers Realty Shares returned 27 percent in 2000, 6 percent in 2001 and 3 percent in 2002. However, much of that success may have been fueled by a surge for the REIT market in general: share prices for Cohen & Steers' flagship fund matched the Morgan Stanley REIT Index in 2000, but fell short of the REIT benchmark in 2001 and 2002.
"Cohen & Steers Realty Shares isn't what it used to be, but it still may be a decent option," a Morningstar analyst wrote last month. "The offering's strongest years of relative performance came in its early years when it had a much smaller asset base. ... The last three years have been particularly vexing."
The fund tends to invest in bigger, more established REITs, but smaller real estate trusts have led the industry in recent years, Morningstar said. However, the research firm noted, Cohen & Steers has lower expenses than many of its peers and its managers have always had a consistent investing philosophy: "This fund's recent record is hard to ignore, but its experienced managers, extensive resources, low expenses, disciplined strategy, and long-term focus give us hope. It's still an okay choice for patient investors."
Overall, Cohen's picks for Wall $treet Week with FORTUNE have been more than okay since he appeared on the program almost a year ago. His five picks easily outpaced the Morgan Stanley benchmark as they returned a 1-year gain of 9.2 percent on average, thanks to excellent performances from General Growth Properties, with a return of 33.7 percent according to Morningstar; and Simon Property Group, up 13.5 percent. Two other picks, Equity Residential and Avalonbay Communities, were down slightly; and the fifth stock he cited, Vornado Group, produced a slight positive return over the past year.
In 1980, while a vice president at Citibank, Martin Cohen organized and managed the Citibank Real Estate Stock Fund for that bank’s pension clients. In 1985, while a senior vice president at National Securities and Research Corporation, he and Robert Steers organized and managed the nation’s first real estate securities mutual fund. Cohen writes and lectures frequently on investing in real estate securities. In 2001, he received the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts Industry Achievement Award.
Cohen received a Bachelor of Science degree from the City College of New York and worked as a biochemist before attending New York University where he earned his MBA degree.
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