Marcos Assumpção & teamItaú BBA
Repeating at third is Itaú BBA’s São Paulo–based duo under Marcos Assumpção, who also guides the top team in Pulp & Paper. Clients applaud a six-part series of reports between March and May about Brazilian miner Vale’s complex tax litigation hurdles, which “kept us up to date in plain, clear, reassuring language,” as one reader puts it. The missives reiterated the analysts’ long-standing outperform, largely on Vale’s pipeline of active mines, but the stock slid 16.5 percent in the 12 months through mid-July and lagged the sector by 1.7 percentage points. — Ben Mattlin
RUNNER(S)-UP
Rodrigo Barros & teamDeutsche Bank Securities
Edmo Chagas & teamBTG Pactual
Leonardo Correa & teamBarclays
Alexander Hacking & teamCiti