Posted on March 22, 2018 by Joanna Carver
A team of UTSA finance majors advanced to the national CFA Research Challenge in Boston this month by beating out 27 competitors from schools such as Baylor, Texas A&M, University of Houston and UT-Austin.
This was the third time that a UTSA team has advanced to the third round of this international competition.
Team members were seniors Joshua Mazariegos and Bence Varga, and Patrick Seaworth, ’17, who graduated in December.
The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual competition that promotes best practices in equity research among the next generation of analysts. Students work in teams to research and value a publicly traded company. Each team writes a 10-page research report on their assigned company with a buy, sell or hold recommendation and then presents and defends their analysis to a panel of industry professionals.
As classmates, roommates and fellow members of the Investment Society, this year’s team signed up for the CFA competition after completing faculty member Ron Sweet’s Security Analysis class together last semester.
“We have a great finance department and great faculty,” said Varga. “But this competition allowed us to apply what we’ve learned in class to real-world scenarios.”
In December they were given the research assignment—Andeavor, a San Antonio-based oil and gas company. Working in their advantage was the fact that each member had previous experience with this industry. Varga works at Valero, Mazariegos will be interning with Shell this summer and Seaworth worked with the energy sector in the Investment Society.
Using the knowledge they gained from their security analysis class and experience participating in the Investment Society sector wars competition, the team submitted their final report in February. The UTSA team was chosen as a top ten finalist to make a live presentation to the judges in Dallas.
“The experience we’ve gained from this competition is so valuable,” said Mazariegos. “Professor Sweet is the best mentor we could ever ask for.”
UTSA and Rice advanced to the CFA national competition in Boston. The team competed against 55 mostly graduate teams from universities in the United States, Canada and Latin America.
“Through my education at UTSA and work in the Investment Society, I’ve turned a hobby of finance into a career,” said Seaworth.
Wendy Frost–
Please send your comments to: wendy.frost@utsa.edu
— Joanna Carver
