SECOND TEAM
Loredana Serra & team Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley’s three-member team slips one notch to second place. Led by New York–based Loredana Serra, who also pilots the No. 3 team in Food & Beverages, the crew wins praise for a November about-face on Lojas Renner; the analysts downgraded the Porto Alegre, Brazil–based clothing retailer from overweight to equal weight, at 58.82 reais, largely on valuation. By late January the stock had plunged 22.1 percent, to R45.91, and the researchers issued a short-term trading buy — but they did not upgrade the stock to overweight until May, at R54.90, partly on falling cotton prices. It shot to R61.27 in early June but was dragged down by market turmoil to end July at R55.74, for a gain of 1.5 percent that trailed the sector by 3.9 percentage points. “Lore is nimble and smart,” proclaims one ally.