David Lawant
& team
Itaú BBA
First-place appearances: 0

Total appearances: 2

Team debut: 2012

In second place for a second year running is the Itaú BBA trio under David Lawant, who also directs a runner-up team in Cement & Construction. The São Paulo–based crew “produces reasonable, fundamental analyses in an industry still characterized by wide disparities in competence,” observes one fund manager in Brazil. Keeping sights on 20 stocks, with plans to add Mexican real estate investment trusts (known as FIBRAs) in the coming months, the researchers upgraded Brazil’s Iguatemi Empresa de Shopping Centers from underperform to outperform in July 2012, at a split-adjusted 10.54 reais, on valuation and low vacancy rates. A year later the mall manager’s shares had jumped to 21.73 reais, gaining a whopping 106.2 percent in a period when the sector tumbled 8.6 percent. — Ben Mattlin