From the Weekend Australian: In March and April investors were...

From the Weekend Australian:


In March and April investors were unnerved by a highly critical report from short-seller Glaucus which said Blue Sky’s assets under management — the key metric watched by investors — was as little as $1.5 billion, or 40 per cent of the $4bn figure claimed by the company.
Accusing the company of charging investors in its string of unlisted private equity, water and real estate funds “egregious” management fees, Glaucus said the Blue Sky shares were worth no more than $2.66.
Critics noted that analysts at Morgans and Shaw Stockbroking had issued a series of bullish research reports on Blue Sky before their firms were tagged to lead a $100 million capital raising at $11.50 a share in March, just days before the Glaucus report was released on March 28.
Brisbane-based Morgans has participarted as a Joint Lead Manager for Blue Sky’s recent $100 million raising. Morgans analyst Scott Murdoch had upgraded his price target three times since August in reports titled “Institutional AUM (assets under management) lifting off” and “Long runway for AUM (Assets Under Management) growth”. Mr Murdoch was on leave this week. A spokeswoman for Morgans said “Research is clearly Independent from Corporate Advisory and ECM”. The Morgans spokeswoman said Mr Murdoch had advised clients to expect “short term negativity and price volatility” in the stock.
Shaw Stockbroking analyst Martin Crabb said his buy recommendation and $14.20 price target on Blue Sky was “under review” after the company lowered and then withdrew guidance for earnings and funds under management, and the chief executive stood down.
Mr Crabb, who doubles as Shaw’s chief investment officer, said while the report was out of date, clients were being advised not to trade the stock.
He upgraded his price target to $14.20 as Blue Sky’s shares rose and the fund manager hit funds under management targets that it had guided to. But the recommendation was lowered to a “hold” before the capital raising and restored to a buy in March. The “buy” recommendation and price target was last issued on April 5 when the shares had slumped to about $5.60, according to Bloomberg data.
Mr Crabb said because of the number of developments — including board, management and guidance changes, new details on valuations and a wait for expressions of support from backers of Blue Sky’s funds business — it was “difficult to be definitive” about the stock.