Ray Lefebvre of Wells Fargo Asset Management visited Dr. Krause's AIM Class on Friday, September 15, 2017

This week the AIM Program Welcomed Marquette Alumni, Ray Lefebvre, of Wells Fargo Asset Management (Special Value Global Equity Team)

Ray Lefebvre of Wells Fargo Asset Management in the AIM Room

On Friday, September 15, 2017, Ray Lefebvre, CFA, Marquette MBA, Research Analyst on Wells Fargo Asset Management’s Special Value GlobalEquity Team, presented to the AIM seniors in the Class of 2018.  

Ray provided an overview of the history of the Wells Capital Management, a leading institutional investment management firm, and an important part of Wells Fargo Asset Management. He talked about the firm's equity analyst program and encouraged AIM students to consider career options with Wells Fargo's investment teams.

Dr. David Krause, AIM program director said, “Ray has been helping out with our Ins and Outs of Wall Street event for several years – so it was great to get him into the classroom to talk about his experiences within Wells Cap and to talk about the opportunities available to graduating seniors. Ray explained the process the Special Value team follows, which is useful to the students who are considering a career on the buy side.”

Dr. David Krause and Ray Lefebvre

As another representative of a Milwaukee-based investment team, Ray talked about the Special Value Equity Team’s philosophy, strategies, and processes. For instance, their portfolio investment process involves measuring active risk on both a sector and security level; maintaining a long-term investment horizon (3-5 years); and focusing on fundamental analysis and attractive valuations.

Utilizing strong accounting skills, the team pays close attention to firms’ balance sheets; long-term free cash flow generation; and an acceptable reward-to-risk ratio. 

Dr. Krause added, “It is clear that this team manages their five funds with a very disciplined process that follows strict valuation standards and construction guidelines – and as a result they have demonstrated strong long-term, above-peer performance with below-peer risk.”

Ray Lefebvre

Ray emphasized the importance of strong research skills noting that their strategy employs a rigorous fundamental approach to analyzing financial statements. He indicated that the Special Value Team’s strategy is to seek to own companies that possess the following three criteria:

            1. A durable asset base that provides a long-term competitive advantage

            2. Strong and sustainable Free Cash Flow (FCF) that provides stability and consistency

            3. A flexible balance sheet that is available for accretive deployment

Students had the opportunity to ask Ray questions about fundamental analysis. He indicated that they invest when a target company’s market price meets all of their criteria, and has a market price that allows for meaningful appreciation to their estimated intrinsic value price target and a limited loss of capital to their worst-case price target.