Anyone who shorted D-Mart, went long on Tata Power and loaded up on country’s oil marketing companies following Ambit Capital's recommendations should read no further.

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And even if you do, be ready to churn your portfolio if you haven't already.

Ambit’s institutional equity team on Friday put out a note acknowledging all the "mistakes" it made in the last 12 months.

Institutional equity is one of the three businesses of Ambit Capital. The other two being private wealth and asset management. Ambit’s private wealth business has an AUM (asset under management) of Rs 5,000 crore whereas the AUM for its wealth management business is pegged at Rs 750 crore.

The team shared its worst 'buy' and 'sell' recommendations "after some soul searching" and launched a survey to get direct feedback from clients – on what its biggest mistakes were.

"The aim is to collate this feedback and introspect," the statement said.

Lets take a look at the list of company specific recommendations that went awry:

Ambit’s worst BUYs:

Tata Power & our unrequited love: We’ve been buyers for more than five years; stock has been flat throughout. People look for earnings stability, we were looking for stock price stability!

Dish TV & the perennial wait for ARPU increase! Our initiation at Rs 75 in March 2016 has proven to be a good resistance! Free Dish played spoilsport.

India’s oil marketing companies & our resolute faith in them despite limited ability to predict crude, currency or government behavior; stocks are down 25 percent from peaks.

VA Tech Wabag, DB Corp and Greaves Cotton: Stocks that we love that no one else cares about! Each is down more than 20 percent.

Bharat Electronics & our continuous upgrades even at peak multiples on peak earnings; the stock is down more than 40 percent from its peak.

The agro-chem cycle turn that never came: We have predicted it was “just around the corner” for 2 years now. Biggest bet – PI Industries; stock flat for a year.

Ambit’s worst SELLs:

D Mart and the missed bus to India’s best grocery retailer: Despite the best pre-IPO research (management said so too!), we initiated with a sell; the stock is up 35 percent since then.

Jubilant Foodworks & the lowest target price on the street: Stellar SSG (same-store sales growth) + margin expansion = stock is up 175 percent in 12 months. Confession: It is the best performing stock in our coverage!

Bajaj Finance and our refusal to learn: It has delivered a 4-year CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 70 percent; we’re sellers throughout. Growth at the cost of asset quality thesis is yet to play out.

United Breweries & our dislike for beer! We loved spirits (United Spirits up more than 60% since initiation) but United Breweries (sell) is also up more than 50 percent; the company clearly surprised us on growth.

First Published:Jun 8, 2018 1:41 PM IST