Analyst Tim Ramey, known for his criticism of Bill Ackman on the Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) controversy and also his short flip flop on the company, has left his consulting position to return to sell-side analysis. ValueWalk learned early this morning that Ramey is at least cutting down on the hours he spends working with Post Holdings Inc (NYSE:POST) to join Pivotal Research Group—but perhaps not entirely cutting ties with Post.
Ramey leaves Post Holdings
ValueWalk obtained an email which Ramey sent out Tuesday night. It states that he will still consult for Post Holdings Inc (NYSE:POST). He left his previous sell-side analysis position at D.A. Davidson earlier this year to become a consultant for Post. The email said Post will now need less of his time but that he will keep working with the company “on a special research project basis.” The reason given was the closing of the Michael Foods deal back in June.
Pivotal Research confirmed to ValueWalk that Ramey began working at the company on October 1st. Also, the analyst has updated his LinkedIn profile with the new job. The news was first reported by famous Herbalife blogger, TheSkeptic.
Ramey will return to providing analysis for companies in the Food, Beverage and Nutrition sector, which means we’ll probably hear a lot more about Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) again.
Ramey becomes a link between Herbalife, Post
We have contacted Post Holdings for a statement on Tim Ramey’s status with the company. As of this writing, we were not able to confirm whether he will still be associated with Post while at Pivotal Research. We will update this story when we hear back from Post.
If Ramey really does continue working with Post Holdings Inc (NYSE:POST) while at Pivotal, it certainly seems like an odd arrangement. He certainly shouldn’t be issuing any analysis or reports on Post while he consults with the company, as that could be a conflict of interest (potentially worse than the usual conflicts analysts have, anyway). Of course Post could easily be affected by what he says about its competitors too.
Additionally, Post Holdings Inc (NYSE:POST) CEO Bill Stiritz did hold a significant stake in Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF), at least as of a January filing, making this setup even more interesting, if it’s true. Ramey’s posts on Herbalife tend to affect the markets, so the potential exists for him to help raise Herbalife’s share price, thus benefiting Stiritz, if Stiritz’s stake is at all significant in size.
