Stock picking is not a shot in the dark. When done right, it is backed up by rigorous analysis and thorough preparation. Twenty-four student teams from MBA schools around the world put their stock picking and valuation skills to test in the 2019 Ben Graham Centre’s International Stock Picking Competition.
The competition, in its sixth year, pit prestigious business schools against each other vying for $14,000 in total prize money. In the first stage teams prepared a valuation report on a firm which was judged by a panel of industry practitioners and experts for the quality of their analysis. The top three teams were chosen to compete and present in-person in Toronto.
With only a few days to prepare a comprehensive report on a Canadian software company specializing in the oil and gas industry, teams from Carnegie Mellon University, the Rotman School of Management and the Ivey Business School faced-off, each delivering a presentation in front of a distinguished panel of value investors.
Wayne Peters, Founder, Peters MacGregor Capital Management and member of the judging panel was very impressed with the perspectives presented.
“The standard of the final three teams was just outstanding,” said Peters. “To think they can bring together such an in-depth analysis of a company in less than two weeks highlights the young talent that is coming through the ranks of these world universities.”
After extensive deliberations by the five-judge panel, the team of Frederico Gomes (MBA ’19), Vinicius Vilhena (MBA ’19) and Michael Sproule (JD / MBA ’20) from the Rotman School of Management came out on top, followed by Ivey and Carnegic Mellon respectively.
“It was a hard competition and under a short timeframe,” said Gomes. “We learned that we can get a lot more insights through actually talking to people in the industry, talk to management, instead of just relying on reading annual reports and reading things online.”
While the competition was very challenging, the takeaways from the panel of professional investors were invaluable.
“This competition was far more rigourous in terms of the Q&A. The Q&A was tremendous. They were very rigourous in how they approached and probed with follow-up questions,” reflected Sproule.
The team from Rotman took home a cash prize of $8,000.
