New York Awaits Five Students Following Their Win of Investment Challenge

Business and Leadership School students triumph over five M.B.A. teams

National contest in New York is Tuesday, April 10. Good luck team!

TACOMA, Wash. – Five University of Puget Sound business and leadership students have won the top Northwest prize in a prestigious financial industry contest and will be flying to New York to vie for the national crown.

The team, coached by Lynda Livingston, the Nat S. and Marian W. Rogers Professor of finance, beat business student teams from five other regional universities to win the 2012 Pacific Northwest Investment Research Challenge, hosted by the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Society of Seattle.

Molly Darrow ’12, Tiana Fernandez ’12, Claire Armstrong-Hann ’12, Joe Lomeo ’12, and Jon Prentice ’12 earned the top honor after presenting written and oral research on the Bellevue-based firm Coinstar to investment professionals. Coinstar, which is publically traded, makes and distributes coin-counting machines and Redbox movie-rental kiosks.

“I am truly thrilled to see these very deserving students recognized, not only for the business and investment acumen they have picked up, but for their incredible amount of hard work,” said Livingston. “They presented in front of a group of hard-nosed professionals, and came out ahead of the other teams—all of which were made up of M.B.A. students.”        

Reports such as the one written by the student team are produced regularly by investment banks to give clients a good understanding of the risks and rewards of investing in a company listed on the stock market.

Starting last fall, the Puget Sound students met with top Coinstar executives and toured the headquarters. They spent several months preparing a written analysis, which included a business description, industry overview, and analysis of Coinstar’s competitive position. The report identified investment risks, and gave a financial analysis and company valuation.

After the written reports were submitted, four of the six competing teams were invited to present their findings to local investment professionals from Prime Advisors, Runde and Co., and Garde Capital, as well as an individual investor. Each team made a 10-minute presentation, then took questions.

The five winning Puget Sound students will be flown to New York in April to represent the Pacific Northwest in the April 10 national competition. The winning team of that challenge will enter the global competition in New York. The students also get a year’s membership in the Chartered Financial Analyst Society of Seattle, a table at the group’s premier annual dinner, and a private dinner with two local investment luminaries.

The other competing teams in the Pacific Northwest challenge were from University of Washington (Seattle), University of Washington Bothell, Pacific Lutheran University, Seattle University, and Western Washington University.

Photos on page: Top right: the winning team (from left): Jon Prentice, Lynda Livingston, Tiana Fernandez, Molly Darrow, Claire Armstrong-Hann, Joe Lomeo.  Above left: Molly, Tiana and Claire celebrating. Above right: Jon after the win.

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