Business team earns high score at research challenge

The College of Business Administration sent, for the second year, a team to participate in the CFA Institute Research Challenge of the Southwest, where they advanced to the regional competition and presented their recommendations at Rice University in Houston.
The University team traveled to Texas on Feb. 16 and received the highest score on their written report. They also achieved an overall ranking of fourth out of the 25 teams that participated.
Schools that participate in the challenge are assigned a company, and each group has to provide a company analysis through a written research report.
This year the Nicholls team did research and provided recommendations for the company Rackspace Hosting Inc., a cloud computing company in business for 15 years.
“The team must give a recommendation on whether to buy, sell or hold the stock as if they were a part of an investment firm,” Shari Lawrence, associate professor of finance, said.
The Nicholls team consisted of undergraduate and graduate students chosen by faculty members in the College of Business Administration.
Team members were Mark Blanchard, graduate student, Marion Chebet, graduate assistant, Stephanie Ferrell, accounting and finance senior, and Whitney Martinez, senior.
Ferrell said the team had to gather vast amounts of research on Rackspace, including the industry, their competitors, sector and other factors, to completely understand the business environment of the company.
“We had to be able to perform analysis and projections based on the aforementioned research, marketing positing, and viability of the company,” Ferrell said. “In the end, we used the research, assumptions, and projections that we derived over the course of the project to assign a value to the company’s stock and issue an investment recommendation.”
According to the CFA Institute, each group’s reports are scored by a group of high-profile panel experts from top financial institutions.
Each competing team in the research challenge was assigned a mentor that works in the financial field, and the Nicholls team mentor was Michelle Connell, CFA, who works for Asset Management Advisors. The University advisors for the team were John Lajaunie, professor of finance, and Lawrence.
“The project took a lot of time and energy, but it was worth the experience that we all gained from participating in the event,” Ferrell said. “It allowed each of us to get a glimpse of what it takes to be a financial analyst, what the real work is like for a finance professional and that we can compete against individuals from large name schools.”
Schools located in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Texas were also given the opportunity to register a team and participate in the challenge, Lawrence and Paul Callais, endowed professor, said.
“I was honored to be chosen to participate in the competition, because there were only four of us chose to be on the team out of the entire College of Business,” Ferrell said.
The University team competed against:

– Baylor University from Texas
– Cameron University from Oklahoma
– Louisiana State University
– Oklahoma Christian University
– University of Oklahoma
– Rice University of Texas
– Southeastern Louisiana University

– Southern Methodist University from Texas

– Tulane University

– University of Houston

– University of Texas

– University of Texas San Antonio
– St. Mary’s University from Texas