Analyst Rankings: When Car Stocks Stall, Auto Parts Keep Chugging

This week, in our focus on the winning analysts in each industry category from our Analyst Rankings -- Equity 2000, we profile the top analysts tracking automobiles. Next week we'll look at publishing and printing. (Our last focus was on health care facilities.)

That auto stocks were down nearly 24% in 2000 was hardly surprising. The cyclical sector saw sales slow as the economy started to cool in the second half of the year. The current outlook for the group is decidedly bearish. No. 3-ranked David Bradley of J.P. Morgan Chase says he's not recommending any stocks in the group with conviction and deems his top pick, auto-parts manufacturer Johnson Controls(JCI Quote), "the only stock in the group he can recommend in good conscience." ...