The team performed an in-depth analysis on the casual dining restaurant, Kona Grill (NASDAQ: KONA). The overall analysis took a top-down approach. First, macroeconomic conditions and trends pertaining to the restaurant industry were analyzed. Next, a comprehensive financial analysis was performed on Kona Grill and its closest competitors. Finally, various absolute and relative valuation techniques were performed to determine the intrinsic value of the stock, which came out to $8.29. Compared to the current price on 4/08/2013 of $8.83, it was determined that the stock was fairly valued, warranting a hold recommendation.

The study of finance seeks to explore the possibilities, causes, and effects of money market trading. The objective of every financial analyst is to understand what moves the market and how one can benefit from its dynamics. There is little agreement between investors and analysts over which investment paradigms and modes of measurement and prediction are viable. The six financial viewpoints that will be discussed in this paper, though different in content, share one authentic theme: the value of experience. Although GenSpring (advocates of passive investment), Don Seeley (advocate of using financial statements to predict companies’ success in the market, and advocate of the importance of frequently overlooked financial information), Bob Kuberek (advocate of using performance attribution to measure value added by managers, and advocate of fixed income strategy analysis), and Peter Brimm (advocate of stockpicking strategies) may have different views as to what matters when investing, they all derive meaning from experience in the field, whether it’s using statistical analysis, historical analysis, or mathematical analysis.

The team performed an in-depth analysis on the casual dining restaurant, Kona Grill (NASDAQ: KONA). The overall analysis took a top-down approach. First, macroeconomic conditions and trends pertaining to the restaurant industry were analyzed. Next, a comprehensive financial analysis was performed on Kona Grill and its closest competitors. Finally, various absolute and relative valuation techniques were performed to determine the intrinsic value of the stock, which came out to $8.29. Compared to the current price on 4/08/2013 of $8.83, it was determined that the stock was fairly valued, warranting a hold recommendation.

The team performed an in-depth analysis on the casual dining restaurant, Kona Grill (NASDAQ: KONA). The overall analysis took a top-down approach. First, macroeconomic conditions and trends pertaining to the restaurant industry were analyzed. Next, a comprehensive financial analysis was performed on Kona Grill and its closest competitors. Finally, various absolute and relative valuation techniques were performed to determine the intrinsic value of the stock, which came out to $8.29. Compared to the current price on 4/08/2013 of $8.83, it was determined that the stock was fairly valued, warranting a hold recommendation.

For my finance, honors thesis I participated in the 4th annual CQA Investment Challenge. The goal of the challenge is to successfully manage an equity long-short, market neutral portfolio (hedge fund). I worked on a team with three other guys from the Applied Portfolio Management class to invest and manage $20,000,000 of hypothetical money. Our investment horizon ran from October 30, 2015 – April 1, 2016. The stock universe we had access to was the Russell 1000, which mainly consists of the highest-ranking large cap stocks in the US equity market. Thirty-one teams from different universities were judged at the end of the competition on absolute return rank, adjusted return rank (the Sharpe ratio) and evaluation of the team video, which discussed investment strategy. The University of Arizona team achieved an absolute return of 6.47%, Sharpe ratio of 0.36 and abnormal return (alpha) of 20.05%. We finished with a ranking of 7th place out of 31 participating schools.

In this honors thesis, I attempted to develop an investment strategy to analyze the U.S. stock market by studying the correlations between nine sectors defined by the Select Sector Standard & Poor’s Depository Receipts (SPDR). These funds are a group of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) which are traded worldwide and can adequately represent the performance of the sectors. Through my method, I hope to identify the sector trends in the future by evaluating the sector ETF’s most recent short-term period data. This analysis will provide an alternate investment method for investors to avoid short-term investment risk as well as explanations of why I think the approach may not be valid.

The CFA research competition is a global competition that allows university teams to engage in financial analysis of a publicly traded company. This year the company chosen to analyze was Sprouts Farmers Market, a low cost, health-oriented grocer based out of Phoenix, Arizona. The competition included a visit with Sprouts management in Phoenix, research on Sprouts and the industry, and the creation of a research report with a buy/sell/hold recommendation on Sprouts’ stock. Our research report synthesized our research and issued a sell recommendation for the company based on an analysis of the industry, analysis of Sprouts strengths and weaknesses, analysis of macroeconomic conditions, risks, and a comprehensive valuation of Sprouts. After producing this research report our team presented our research to judges in Phoenix in a 10 minute presentation for the second part of the competition.

A traditional part of the portfolio management course at the University of Arizona's Eller College of Management, is that each year a team participates in the international CFA Institute Research Challenge. This challenge is an annual competition that permits university students around the world to gain intensive training and practice in financial analysis. Students work in teams of 4 or 5 over the course of a semester to research and analyze a publically traded company. This year we, along with all other schools participating in this competition were asked to value Sprouts. Being from the Southwest region, we and four other teams were further afforded the opportunity to speak with the CFO of Sprouts in addition to conducting our own research. Utilizing all the resources provided to us, we proceeded to develop a 10-page recommendation regarding our position on Sprouts' stock: buy, sell or hold. This competition culminated for our team in a verbal presentation given to a local panel of CFA Institute members which, when combined with our report score, afforded us second place. The remainder of this thesis report details the research and work involved in producing both the 10-page report and the presentation for this challenge.