Tuck team wins MBA stock pitch competition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—November 12, 2008
CONTACT: Kim Keating,
603-646-2733
HANOVER, N.H.—A team from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth captured the title and a $4,500 prize at the seventh annual MBA Stock Pitch Competition, which took place at the Parker Center for Investment Research at Cornell University's Johnson School on November 7.
Besting competitors from top universities nationwide, the Tuck team included first-year students Wray Barber, Ryan DeGrass, and Claire Voorhees. The winning team pitched buys for Jet Blue (JBLU) and Strayer Education (STRA) to make it to the final round. In the finals, the Tuck team pitched a sell for Motorola (MOT) and offered a one-year price target of $3.90, a 14 percent discount from the closing price on November 6, 2008. DeGrass believes the company represents a "value trap due to deteriorating fundamentals" and suggested that the lack of innovative products from the Mobile Services division and the over-reliance on the CDMA platform will cause the company to rapidly lose market share.
Sanjeev Bhojrah, associate professor of accounting and faculty director of the Parker Center for Investment Research commented, "This competition is an opportunity for leading MBA students to test their financial acumen and pitch stocks to a panel of industry professionals. They face incredible time pressure to pull together three stock pitches in 12 hours. This competition mimics the pressure and stand-and-deliver skills MBA students need to make it as an analyst."
In addition to the Tuck team, the competition included teams from MBA programs at Columbia Graduate School of Business, Cornell's Johnson School, Duke's Fuqua School of Business, MIT's Sloan School of Management, New York University's Stern School of Business, Northwestern's Kellogg School of Business, the University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business, University of Maryland's R.H. Smith School of Business, University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, and the Yale School of Management.
"The MBA Stock Pitch Competition hosted by the Johnson School and the Parker Center was a first class event," said DeGrass. "The opportunity to present to and engage with the distinguished panel of judges was an invaluable learning experience. The intense nature of the competition format placed a premium on effective teamwork, and we all learned a great deal."
Fidelity Investments was the lead sponsor of the event. Other sponsors included Johnson School alumnus and private investor Jack Ferraro, Barclays Global Investors, CFA Institute, Wellington Management, and State Street Global Advisors. Sponsorship afforded the right to send both a judge and a recruiter to the competition, which has become an opportunity for investment research recruiters to gain early access to top students from leading universities across the U.S.
Founded in 1900, Tuck is the first graduate school of management in the country and consistently ranks among the top business schools worldwide. Tuck remains distinctive among the world's great business schools by combining human scale with global reach, rigorous coursework with experiences requiring teamwork, and valued traditions with innovation.
|
