The 10 best stock pickers of 2016 (REI, ECA, GNW, SIVB, TBK, AMD, GNMK, FMSA, CDE, AMBR)

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Wall Street's sell-side analysts publish piles of recommendations on which stocks to buy, sell, or hold every day.

In retrospect, and for the trader with a shorter time horizon, only a few of those calls were worth listening to in 2016.

TipRanks, a website that tracks and ranks analyst recommendations, compiled a list of stock pickers who had the most success last year.

After scanning hundreds of thousands of recommendations, TipRanks graded them by average return and success rate, which is the ratio of calls that generated positive returns in the following quarter relative to all ratings that were given.

Recommendations were measured for a three-month period from the open date in 2016 or until January 11, if the three months are still ongoing. 

Here are the stock pickers, ranked by average return of their calls:

10. Michael Matson, Needham

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Industry: Healthcare

Success Rate: 62%

Average Return: 9%

Noteworthy recommendation: GenMark (GNMK)

Matson’s most profitable recommendation of 2016 (with a three-month profit of 72.7%) was for molecular diagnostic testing company GenMark on April 19. He has subsequently reiterated his buy rating twice — most recently on July 29 after the European clearance and launch of GNMK’s sample-to-answer ePlex system. At the end of last year, GenMark submitted ePlex to the FDA for clearance.

9. Christopher Nolan, FBR

FBR

Industry: Financial

Success Rate: 87%

Average Return: 11.5%

Noteworthy recommendation: Triumph Bancorp (TBK)

Nolan’s buy recommendation of Texas-based Triumph Bancorp on Nov. 27 was his most profitable call of the last year. From the end of Nov until Jan. 11 the shares made 39.9% profit.

According to Nolan, 3Q16 earnings were solid with EPS of $0.32 above estimates (excluding merger-related expenses from the acquisition of ColoEast Bancshares in August). However, "asset quality deteriorated in terms of higher nonperforming assets (NPA) and net charge-offs mostly related to legacy TBK credit," said Nolan.

8. Mark Palmer, BTIG

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Industry: Financial

Success Rate: 78%

Average Return: 14.2%

Noteworthy recommendation: Genworth Financial (GNW)

Palmer maintained his Buy rating on the insurance company’s stock on February 5. This turned out to be a very good decision — the stock gained 78% in the three months after the call with the share price rising from $2.18 to $4.06. 

However, Palmer has recently downgraded his Genworth rating to hold following the announcement in October of its acquisition by China Oceanwide for $5.43 per share in cash.

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