Before arriving in Pittsburgh, each team submitted a 10-page report. At the competition, they delivered 10-minute presentations to the judges, who then asked questions about the students’ findings.
The Smeal team predicted that PPG shares would be priced at $200.50 one year from now, or about a 7.5 percent increase over market close at the time of the competition.
Lucente explained that the rigorous Nittany Lion Fund activities he and his teammates were accustomed to prepared them well for the competition.
“As part of the Nittany Lion Fund, we’re constantly pitching stocks, and we’re used to handling questions like the ones the judges asked us,” he said. “We went into the competition with a level of confidence because we’re used to presenting in this capacity.”
The team was also familiar with PPG, as they own the company’s stock in the Nittany Lion Fund.
The Americas finals are slated for March 18-19 in Denver. Winners of that competition will advance to the global contest in Bangkok, Thailand.
The CFA Research Challenge is organized by the CFA Institute, a professional group for certified financial analysts based in Charlottesville, Va. The annual challenge is organized to give students real-life experience analyzing a publicly traded company.
The Nittany Lion Fund offers a unique opportunity for high-performing finance students to connect to real-world investors. The fund’s student managers operate out of the Rogers Family Trading Room, a state-of-the-art classroom and laboratory that replicates real-world trading experience. Students in the Trading Room use dataset resources to simulate trading, portfolio management and other finance-related models, and real-time stock tickers and data boards offer important financial information.