Herbalife Shares Rise After Bullish Analyst Takes New Job

Shares of Herbalife rose 6.7 percent on Monday after a report that an analyst covering the stock had gone to work for a major shareholder.

Timothy Ramey has resigned from his job as an analyst at D.A. Davidson, according to John Rogers, the head of institutional equity research at the brokerage firm. The move was announced internally on Monday.

His next job is with Post Holdings, the parent company of the maker of cereals and other foods, as director of strategic ventures on a consulting basis, Bloomberg News reported. The chairman and chief executive of Post, William P. Stiritz, is the fourth-largest shareholder of Herbalife, with a roughly 6.4 percent stake as of Nov. 18.

Details of Mr. Ramey’s new role were not clear. A staunch defender of the company, Mr. Ramey has been critical of William A. Ackman, the hedge fund manager who has bet $1 billion that the stock is worthless. Herbalife has denied Mr. Ackman’s contention that the company is an abusive pyramid scheme.

Herbalife shares closed at $64.06 on Monday. The stock fell last week after Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, asked regulators to look into the company’s business.

Mr. Ramey has called Herbalife his “single best idea of 2014.” In a research note on Jan. 16, he discussed allegations made by a “now-infamous short-seller.”

“Perversely, the inquisition that Herbalife has endured for the past year has made the company better with a few ‘raising the bar’ policy tweaks,” Mr. Ramey wrote. “But it is the depth of the research by both longs and shorts that has clearly vindicated the Herbalife MLM model,” he said, using the shorthand for multilevel marketing company.

A representative of Post Holdings did not respond to requests for comment. A message left at Mr. Ramey’s family vineyard was not returned.