Intel and 2 Other Stock Picks From a Tech Analyst

To tackle all of this, Barron's sat down with New Street Research technology infrastructure chief Pierre Ferragu at the investment research boutique's office in Manhattan's Flatiron District. Its open floor plan has a European-design sensibility, yet resembles a small trading operation--a book of Richard Avedon photos makes way for whiteboards covered with remnants of S-curves and math equations as oversize Bloomberg screens flash green and red. Ferragu, 44, joined New Street last year looking for "freedom of thought." He began his career at the Boston Consulting Group, where he advised management teams at media and technology companies; he joined Bernstein in 2008 to make the leap to investment research. But technology is not just a sector in the S&P 500 index--it's also a part of every sector, and Ferragu wanted more freedom to make connections and draw insights from disparate industry groups that can sometimes cause turf wars among analysts.