All candidates are required to fill in the application form and prepare an original “BUY Recommendation” equity research report for one of the stocks listed below. Creation of this report must adhere to all of the following rules and guidelines. Candidates who do not adhere to the rules listed below will be deemed ineligible for selection into Applied Portfolio Management A and B. The requirements for submission are as follows:
- The report may contain no more than 2 pages of single‐spaced text using 12‐point Times New Roman font and 2.5cm margins.
- This report will be blind reviewed. Please include your SID. Your name should NOT appear anywhere on the body of the company report.
- You must select a company from this list
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- The report must be entirely the original work of the applicant. Applicants may use only publicly available resources to prepare the report. Applicants may NOT communicate or solicit assistance from any financial professional (analyst, investment manager, etc.) or academic staff regarding this project.
- Source citations must be properly referenced in a footnote rather than listed at the end of the report.
- The goal of the research report is NOT to have candidates stylistically recreate professional sell‐side research reports. As such, candidates should develop their own style and focus on the ideas most important to their investment thesis.
- Individual analyst reports will be evaluated based on the strength of the written analysis, including writing quality, communication skills, economic analysis, industry analysis, company analysis, investment thesis, and overall investment forecasts.
- Although some candidates may find their evaluation of the company benefits from including some supporting financial analysis, a successful report does not necessarily require extensive valuation models.
- Rather than simply presenting historical facts and data, candidates should focus on the investment positives or negatives facing the company over the next 6-12 months. The selection committee is especially interested in the specific forecasts and investment outlook presented by each candidate.
There is no pre-defined way to structure the report, but it should address the following points:
- Arguments justifying the BUY recommendation
- Target Price
- Company and sector overview
- Catalysts that will cause the market to adjust to meet the price target
- Company valuation
- Risk factors
Candidates are required to electronically submit their report in PDF using SID as the file name below by 11:59pm Friday 6 October 2023. Only submissions from university issued email accounts will be accepted. All reports will be processed via Turnitin anti‐plagiarism software. Any identified case of plagiarism will render the applicant ineligible.
Research reports will be blind reviewed by a selection committee from the Discipline of Finance. The selection committee will not know the identity of any applicant until after completion of the review. The results of this review will produce a shortlist of candidates who will be invited to present their research report to the selection committee.
Individual presentations will provide the final component of the selection process. Successful candidates from the shortlist will be invited to present their research report to a panel comprising staff from the Discipline of Finance. The presentations will take place in October through Zoom. These presentations must adhere to the following rules:
- Each candidate will be allowed a maximum of three minutes for their presentation. This time limit will be strictly enforced.
- The initial presentation will be followed by six minutes for questions from the panel.
- Candidates electing to use PowerPoint must submit their presentation file via email. Presentations will then be pre‐loaded to speed up the transition process between speakers.
Successful applicants will be notified via email in October. Reports and applications will not be returned. Individual feedback will not be provided. All decisions of the selection committee are final.