Pitch Competition

The Maize and Blue Stock Pitch Competition provides a forum for all students at University of Michigan to compete and showcase their stock-picking skills in front of a panel of distinguished investors.

The competition will be held annually in the Winter B term at the Ross School of Business. This year’s competition is scheduled for March 24th, 2023 and a dinner is scheduled for the participants, judges, and sponsors for March 23rd, 2023.

The competition will be judged by five distinguished investors and judges will coach the participants prior to the competition. Students will be assigned to judges at the end of the Winter A term and will work closely with them to develop their stock pitches.

The Maize and Blue Award for Excellence in Securities Analysis with a $5,000 in prize money will be granted to a participant in the competition who develops the best investment thesis on a U.S. publicly traded company.  The second and third placed participants will respectively receive $2000, and $1000.

The Maize and Blue Award for Excellence in Securities Analysis is provided for by a generous gift to the Maize and Blue Fund by Ross School of Business alumnus Corey S. Tobin. Corey is a Research Analyst on William Blair Investment Management’s U.S. Growth Equity team, and he previously served as the team’s Director of Research. He frequently visits campus and speaks to the Maize and Blue Fund. Corey received a B.S. in business administration with high distinction from the University of Michigan, an M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and an M.S. in computer science with recognition from the University of Chicago.

Applications for the first round of the competition are due on February 12, 2023 and 11:59pm.

Application: This is an individual competition. Applicants must submit up to 3-page summary of their stock pitch (PDF) alongside their financial model (Excel), their resume (PDF) and their transcript (PDF).

Stock Pitch Criteria:

  1. The pitched stock should be a U.S. publicly traded company with a market capitalization of at least $100M. The stock must have at least $2 million of daily volume (over a minimum of the 3-month period immediately before January 1, 2023). ADRs, ETFs, ETNs, Closed-end funds, or other exchange-traded securities, including derivatives and currencies, will not be eligible.
  2. Your pitch can be either a long or a short position.

Timeline: All submissions for Round 1 of the competition must be emailed to umich-mbef@umich.edu by February 12th, 2023 at 11:59pm. Selected participants will be invited for a 10-minute interview by February 23rd, 2023.

For more information or follow up questions, please reach out to Professor Pedram Nezafat (nezafat@umich.edu).

Academic Year 2022-2023

 

First Place: Taylor Bielefeld 

Stock: Short WDFC

Second Place: Shrey Dalal 

Stock: Long ON

Third Place: Tejas Gumudavelly 

Stock: Long PRLB