Overview
The Northwestern University Investment Pitch Competition is an annual student-run stock pitch competition in which first-year Northwestern students compete by pitching an investment idea to a panel of student judges. Most company-sponsored stock competitions are difficult for first-year students as contestants often include upperclassmen and students enrolled in undergraduate business programs at other universities. The purpose of this competition is to provide first-year Northwestern students a unique opportunity to have full ownership in an investment pitch and showcase their investing acumen. IMG has hosted the competition since 2020 by collaborating with Northwestern Capital Management (NCM) and Northwestern University Investment Banking Club (IBC). Investment pitches are also crucial for a successful finance recruitment season, as finalists have seen stellar results with internship placements at Blackstone, KKR, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Evercore, PJT, Moelis, Lazard, Houlihan Lokey, Bank of America, and so on.
2024 Competition (Class of 2027)
Prompt:
Find, research/diligence, and pitch a long or short position on a company undergoing the ‘trough’ of its business cycle.
Winner:
Alphaholics - Long MP Materials (MP) - Owen Botkin (IMG), Evan Horwitz (IMG), Andrew Zhu (IMG), Gavin Du (IMG)
Runner-Up:
Blakestone - Long Sealed Air Corp (SEE) - Sam Ikenberry (IMG), Blake Duvall (IMG), Anshuk Sharma (IMG), Elia Kobayashi (IMG)
Third Place:
PennyWise - Long Dream Finders Homes (DFH) - Angie Leung (IMG), Arshon Keyani (IMG), Helen Wang (IMG), William Kurlander (IMG)
Find, research/diligence, and pitch a long or short position on a company undergoing the ‘trough’ of its business cycle.
Winner:
Alphaholics - Long MP Materials (MP) - Owen Botkin (IMG), Evan Horwitz (IMG), Andrew Zhu (IMG), Gavin Du (IMG)
Runner-Up:
Blakestone - Long Sealed Air Corp (SEE) - Sam Ikenberry (IMG), Blake Duvall (IMG), Anshuk Sharma (IMG), Elia Kobayashi (IMG)
Third Place:
PennyWise - Long Dream Finders Homes (DFH) - Angie Leung (IMG), Arshon Keyani (IMG), Helen Wang (IMG), William Kurlander (IMG)
2023 Competition (Class of 2026)
Prompt:
Select and conduct diligence to support a long or short position on a mispriced company undergoing an inflection point.
Winner:
SLAY Capital Partners - Long CoreCard (CCRD) - Shiny Han (IMG), Leo Kantrow (IMG), Andrew Metzger (IMG), Yuru Wu (IMG)
Runner-Up:
Free Cash Flow Finessers - Long MIPS AB (STO:MIPS) - Lucas Catilina-Rebucci (IMG), Tom McCabe (IMG), Will Sidrys (IMG), Ellie Yoon (IMG)
Third Place:
Gold(wo)man Sachs - Long Olaplex (OLPX) - Kirka Kallioras (IMG), Natasha Marangu, Reese Harrington (IMG), Sarah Ordway (IMG)
Select and conduct diligence to support a long or short position on a mispriced company undergoing an inflection point.
Winner:
SLAY Capital Partners - Long CoreCard (CCRD) - Shiny Han (IMG), Leo Kantrow (IMG), Andrew Metzger (IMG), Yuru Wu (IMG)
Runner-Up:
Free Cash Flow Finessers - Long MIPS AB (STO:MIPS) - Lucas Catilina-Rebucci (IMG), Tom McCabe (IMG), Will Sidrys (IMG), Ellie Yoon (IMG)
Third Place:
Gold(wo)man Sachs - Long Olaplex (OLPX) - Kirka Kallioras (IMG), Natasha Marangu, Reese Harrington (IMG), Sarah Ordway (IMG)
2022 Competition (Class of 2025)
Prompt:
Select and conduct diligence to support a long or short position on a small-cap company with a differentiated thesis.
Winner:
Baddies of Business - Long Ecovyst (ECVT) - Kaili Tu (IMG), Bella Campise
Runner-Up:
Money Longer - Long OneWater Marine (ONEW) - Josh Radner (IMG), Stef Radjenovic (IMG), Diego Alamillos (IMG), Hayden Gura (IMG)
Finalists:
JPRK - Long Beazley (BLZ.L) - David Jiang, Daniel Ro, Ian Park, Michael Kim
MAJICUS - Long Malibu Boats (MBUU) - Maggie Xiang (IMG), Christine Wei (IMG), Umair Ahmed (IMG), Jerry Cao (IMG)
Select and conduct diligence to support a long or short position on a small-cap company with a differentiated thesis.
Winner:
Baddies of Business - Long Ecovyst (ECVT) - Kaili Tu (IMG), Bella Campise
Runner-Up:
Money Longer - Long OneWater Marine (ONEW) - Josh Radner (IMG), Stef Radjenovic (IMG), Diego Alamillos (IMG), Hayden Gura (IMG)
Finalists:
JPRK - Long Beazley (BLZ.L) - David Jiang, Daniel Ro, Ian Park, Michael Kim
MAJICUS - Long Malibu Boats (MBUU) - Maggie Xiang (IMG), Christine Wei (IMG), Umair Ahmed (IMG), Jerry Cao (IMG)
2021 Competition (Class of 2024)
Prompt:
Select a public company and conduct primary research to support a long or short position on the stock with an investment horizon of 3 to 5 years. The stock must be listed on an American exchange with a market capitalization of at least 1 billion USD.
Winner:
REAM Team - Long PGT Innovations (PGTI) - Rachel Yoon (IMG), Emily Seo (IMG), Anirudh Poranki (IMG), Martin Rusanov (IMG)
The team went on to compete in the MSD Partners Fall 2021 Case Competition, earning 1st place out of 100+ teams across the nation.
Runner-Up:
KCM Asset Management - Short Beyond Meat (BYND) - Jacob Kosmicki (IMG), Allen Cao (IMG), Benjamin Metzger (IMG)
Finalists:
Team Honey Butter - Hanjune Lee, Jiayan Luo, Anoosh Kumar
Piggy Banks - Linda Chen, Freya Ou, Fiona Wang
Select a public company and conduct primary research to support a long or short position on the stock with an investment horizon of 3 to 5 years. The stock must be listed on an American exchange with a market capitalization of at least 1 billion USD.
Winner:
REAM Team - Long PGT Innovations (PGTI) - Rachel Yoon (IMG), Emily Seo (IMG), Anirudh Poranki (IMG), Martin Rusanov (IMG)
The team went on to compete in the MSD Partners Fall 2021 Case Competition, earning 1st place out of 100+ teams across the nation.
Runner-Up:
KCM Asset Management - Short Beyond Meat (BYND) - Jacob Kosmicki (IMG), Allen Cao (IMG), Benjamin Metzger (IMG)
Finalists:
Team Honey Butter - Hanjune Lee, Jiayan Luo, Anoosh Kumar
Piggy Banks - Linda Chen, Freya Ou, Fiona Wang
2020 Competition (Class of 2023)
Prompt:
Due to the economic and market turmoil from the pandemic, please submit a pairs trade of two companies within an industry whose general outlook is uncertain.
Winner:
Quaranteam - Victor Pan (IMG), Ray Yu (IMG), Chris Rascoe (IMG)
Finalists:
WSJ - William He (IMG), Sarina Ku (IMG), Jack Ke (IMG)
FS - Flora Tian (IMG), Sherry Sun (IMG)
GRZ Investments - Audney Guo (IMG), Wasim Rahaman (IMG), Nikola Zhang
Due to the economic and market turmoil from the pandemic, please submit a pairs trade of two companies within an industry whose general outlook is uncertain.
Winner:
Quaranteam - Victor Pan (IMG), Ray Yu (IMG), Chris Rascoe (IMG)
Finalists:
WSJ - William He (IMG), Sarina Ku (IMG), Jack Ke (IMG)
FS - Flora Tian (IMG), Sherry Sun (IMG)
GRZ Investments - Audney Guo (IMG), Wasim Rahaman (IMG), Nikola Zhang