THIRD TEAM

Carlos Constantini & team  Itaú BBA

Repeating in third place is the 32-member Itaú BBA squadron overseen by São Paulo–based Carlos Constantini, who is also the firm’s head of research. “I like their whole team,” says one buy-side backer. “They provide me with timely market intelligence, especially with commodities and agricultural stocks.” The analysts broke with the consensus in February, when they urged clients to underweight Brazil relative to the MSCI emerging-­markets Latin America index. “We forecast that it would be a difficult year for Brazilian companies,” Constantini reports, citing headwinds from “inflation risk, high utilization levels and deteriorating consumer confidence.” They were right. Brazil’s Bolsa de Valores, Mercadorias & Futuros de São Paulo, or BM&F Bovespa, index lagged the broader regional benchmark by 4.3 percentage points, through July.