CFA INSTITUTE RESEARCH CHALLENGE

Abstract

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.