Thursday, February 17, 2022

Marquette’s AIM Team Wins 2022 CFA Society of Madison’s Investment Research Challenge

 The Marquette AIM Blue Team Advances in the CFA Research Challenge

Five AIM students to compete next in the regional round in March

February 17, 2022 – The CFA Society of Madison hosted the local round of the CFA Institute’s Investment Research Challenge.  Marquette University’s Applied Investment Management (AIM) “Blue” team won the competition and will move to the CFA’s regional competition as the representative of the CFA Society of Madison. The CFA Institute is the global association of investment professionals made up of portfolio managers, investment advisors, educators and other financial professionals.

During the local CFA Investment Research Challenge, which again was forced to be held virtually via Zoom, the Marquette team competed against three other groups of students from UW-Green Bay, UW-Eau Claire, and the Marquette AIM “Gold” team. If the Marquette team is successful in the regional round then will advance to the America’s level of the Challenge, which will be held in April, which could then lead to the Global round against the winning schools from Europe and Asia.

The students on Marquette’s advancing team were: Dominic Brisson, Madi Daleiden, Natalie Frey, Rishi Kumar, and Christian Wilber. Members of the AIM gold team were: Ciara Jones, Ben L’Empereur, Brett Selke, Ryan Witt, and George Wong.  All of the students are members of the Applied Investment Management program and they will be graduating in May 2022.


The CFA Institute Research Challenge offers students the unique opportunity to develop and present an equity research report and compete on a global basis. Students will learn from leading industry experts and their mentors and peers from the world’s top business schools. This annual educational initiative is designed to promote best practices in equity research among the next generation of analysts through hands-on mentoring and intensive training in company analysis and presentation skills.

Dr. David Krause, director of the AIM program at Marquette University, said: “This year’s competition was a very challenging event for the students taking part. The subject company was Kohl’s, the Wisconsin-based department store chain. As you might be aware, the company recently received an unsolicited $9 billion bid to go private from a group backed by an activist hedge fund investor.”


Krause commented, “Both Marquette teams did an excellent job presenting their recommendation. We are very excited to represent the CFA Society of Madison and will do our best in the next rounds. We wish to thank the CFA Societies of Madison and Milwaukee for hosting the Challenge. They allow our students the opportunity to meet some of the finest investment professionals in the state and to interact with students from other schools.  The Challenge supports our educational efforts and helps groom the investment professionals of tomorrow.”


This represents the twelfth time in the past fourteen years that a Marquette AIM team has won the local CFA Investment Research Challenge.  Krause concluded, “The teams this year did an outstanding job analyzing Kohl’s given some challenging times, which included the Omicron outbreak and the unsolicited buyout offer. The students used a variety of additional tools in their evaluation including the use of a propriety consumer survey, econometric modeling, data scrapping, and the application of some novel sensitivity analysis to arrive at their recommendation on the stock. We can’t wait to compete in the next round of the CFA Challenge.”

The global competition, which runs until April 2022, this year has attracted nearly 7,000 students and over 1,100 universities in more than 60 countries. The CFA Institute Research Challenge comprises:

•         Analysis of a publicly-traded company

Teams research a publicly traded company. The company’s management presents information to the student teams and is available to answer student questions.

         Mentoring by a professional research analyst

Each team works with a CFA charterholder who mentors the team during the research process and reviews and critiques its report.

•         Writing a research report

Each team produces an Initiation of Coverage report on its chosen company. The report is reviewed and scored by a group of judges.

         Presentation of research to a panel of experts

The teams' final presentations are locally evaluated by panels of experts from top financial institutions. Panelists include heads of research, portfolio managers, and chief investment officers from the world’s top firms. The team with the highest combined written report and presentation score is the winner and advances to the regional level of the Research Challenge.

•         Advancement to the CFA Institute Research Challenge Global Finale

Regional winners then progress to compete at the global finale. At the regional and global stages of the Research Challenge, teams are evaluated solely on their presentations.

 For more information visit the CFA InstituteResearch Challenge website.

 More About the Global Investment Research Challenge

 The challenge gathers students, investment industry professionals, publicly traded companies and corporate sponsors together locally, regionally, and globally for a world competition. In order to promote best practices in equity research and company analysis, students research, analyze, and report on a company as if they are practicing analysts. 

Local CFA societies host and launch an Investment Research Challenge in conjunction with the participating universities. The universities assemble teams of three-five business and finance students who work directly with a company in researching and preparing a company analysis. The team’s final presentations are locally evaluated by high-profile panels of heads of research, portfolio managers, and chief investment officers from the world’s top firms. The local champions advance to regional competitions in the Americas, Asia, and Europe and then to the global finale.

 About CFA Institute

CFA Institute is the global association for investment professionals. It administers the CFA and CIPM curriculum and exam programs worldwide; publishes research; conducts professional development programs; and sets voluntary, ethics-based professional and performance-reporting standards for the investment industry. CFA Institute has more than 170,000 members More information may be found at www.cfainstitute.org

 



 

 

About the AIM Program

 

The AIM Program at Marquette University began in 2005. Since then over 120 undergraduate students have participated in the program. Our alumni can be found in leading investment companies throughout the country - and the world. As the first undergraduate partner with the CFA Institute, we take pride in our students' successful placements and CFA exam pass rates. Please feel free to contact us at: aim@marquette.edu

 

 

Marquette’s AIM Team Wins 2012 CFA Society of Madison’s Investment Research Challenge

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Students to compete in America's regional finals in New York in April 

 

 

February 24, 2012– The CFA Society of Madison hosted the local round of the CFA Institute’s Investment Research Challenge.  Marquette University’s Applied Investment Management (AIM) team won the competition and will move to the CFA America’s regional competition as the representative of the CFA Society of Madison. The CFA Institute is the global association of investment professionals made up of portfolio managers, investment advisors, educators and other financial professionals.

 

During the local CFA Investment Research Challenge, which was held at the Fluno Center in Madison, the Marquette team competed against four other teams of students from UW-LaCrosse, UW-Milwaukee, Milwaukee School of Engineering, and Carroll University. Marquette advances to the America’s Regional level of the Challenge, which will be held in New York in April, where they will compete against fifty other university teams that won their local competitions from North and South America. The winner of the America’s Investment Research Challenge will then compete in the international final, which is also held in New York in April 2012.

 

The students on Marquette’s team were: Jacob Bear, Harrison Davis, Colleen Osborne, Bronson Wetsch, and Alice Wycklendt. All of the students are members of the Applied Investment Management program. They will be graduating in May 2012 and will be sitting for Level I of the CFA exam in June.




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Harrison Davis, Alice Wycklendt, Colleen Osborne, Bronson Wetsch, Jacob Bear



The CFA Institute Research Challenge offers students the unique opportunity to develop and present an equity research report and compete on a global basis. Students will learn from leading industry experts and their mentors and peers from the world’s top business schools. This annual educational initiative is designed to promote best practices in equity research among the next generation of analysts through hands-on mentoring and intensive training in company analysis and presentation skills.

 

Dr. David Krause, director of the AIM program at Marquette University, said: “This year’s competition was very challenging event for the students taking part. The other teams did an excellent job presenting their recommendation. We are very excited to represent the CFA Society of Madison and will do our best in New York in April. We wish to thank the CFA Societies of Madison and Milwaukee for hosting the Challenge. It gives students the chance to meet some of the finest investment professionals in the state and to interact with students from other schools.  The Challenge supports our educational efforts and helps groom the investment professionals of tomorrow.” 

 

This represents the fourth consecutive year that the Marquette team has advanced to the America’s Challenge.  Krause said, “This year’s team did an outstanding job analyzing Marcus Corporation. They used a propriety survey, econometric modeling, and various types of sensitivity analysis to arrive at their recommendation on the stock. They worked well together and I am pleased that they will have the opportunity to present their research findings in New York.”

 

A group of people holding a trophy

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The global competition, which runs until April 2012, has attracted over 3,000 students and 600 universities in nearly 50 countries, including Vietnam, Kenya and Colombia for the first time.

 

The CFA Institute Research Challenge comprises:

 

·         Analysis of a publicly-traded company
Teams research a publicly traded company. The company’s management presents information to the student teams and is available to answer student questions.

·         Mentoring by a professional research analyst
Each team works with a CFA charterholder who mentors the team during the research process and reviews and critiques its report.

·         Writing a research report
Each team produces an Initiation of Coverage report on its chosen company. The report is reviewed and scored by a group of judges.

·         Presentation of research to a panel of experts
The teams' final presentations are locally evaluated by panels of experts from top financial institutions. Panelists include heads of research, portfolio managers, and chief investment officers from the world’s top firms. The team with the highest combined written report and presentation score is the winner and advances to the regional level of the Research Challenge.

·         Advancement to the CFA Institute Research Challenge Global Finale
Regional winners then progress to compete at the global finale. At the regional and global stages of the Research Challenge, teams are evaluated solely on their presentations.

 For more information visit the CFA Institute Research Challenge website.

 

 

About the Global Investment Research Challenge

 

The challenge gathers students, investment industry professionals, publicly traded companies and corporate sponsors together locally, regionally, and globally for a world competition. In order to promote best practices in equity research and company analysis, students research, analyze, and report on a company as if they are practicing analysts. Local CFA societies host and launch an Investment Research Challenge in conjunction with the participating universities. The universities assemble teams of three-five business and finance students who work directly with a company in researching and preparing a company analysis. The team’s final presentations are locally evaluated by high-profile panels of heads of research, portfolio managers, and chief investment officers from the world’s top firms. The local champions advance to regional competitions in the Americas, Asia, and Europe and then to the global finale.

 

About CFA Institute

 

CFA Institute is the global association for investment professionals. It administers the CFA and CIPM curriculum and exam programs worldwide; publishes research; conducts professional development programs; and sets voluntary, ethics-based professional and performance-reporting standards for the investment industry. CFA Institute has more than 105,000 members, who include the world’s 97,000 CFA charterholders, as well as 135 affiliated professional societies in 58 countries and territories. More information may be found at www.cfainstitute.org

 

 

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About the AIM Program

 

The AIM Program at Marquette University began in 2005. Since then over 120 undergraduate students have participated in the program. Our alumni can be found in leading investment companies throughout the country - and the world. As the first undergraduate partner with the CFA Institute, we take pride in our students' successful placements and CFA exam pass rates. Please feel free to contact us at: aim@marquette.edu