From March 4-5, 2016, I had the privilege of traveling with three of my peers to southern California to participate in the USC Value Investing Group’s First Annual Investment Conference, where we were awarded 2^nd Place.

Our team was comprised of members of the Washington University Student Investment Fund (WUSIF): Vaibhav Sharma (Junior), Peter Lu (Junior), Ray Su (Junior), and myself (Freshman). WUSIF is a group of students who are passionate about long-term value investing and have been given the opportunity to manage approximately $150,000 of Washington University’s endowment fund. This semester, Vaibhav is serving as Co-President of the fund, while Peter, Ray, and I are involved in portfolio management.

Our team came together after receiving an invitation to the USC competition from a former Washington University student. The competition required an initial submission of a two-page executive summary, a commonly used form of reporting in equity research.

We scoured the market for a company we believed investors were currently undervaluing and ultimately settled on Arista Networks. A relatively new competitor in the network technology field, Arista’s stock (NYSE: ANET) was not recognizing its full value due to an ongoing lawsuit with industry giant Cisco and overly conservative estimates about the company’s ability to expand their customer base. As we researched, formulated an investment thesis, and built our valuation model, we became confident that Arista was, in fact, a diamond in the rough.

We faced some adversity after our initial submission in early February. The market began to realize the very same thing we had. When we submitted our executive summary, ANET was trading around $59 per share. By the time we were headed off to Los Angeles, ANET was trading at nearly $67 per share.

However, we faced some adversity after our initial submission in early February. The market began to realize the very same thing we had. When we submitted our executive summary, ANET was trading around $59 per share. By the time we were headed off to Los Angeles, ANET was trading at nearly $67 per share. Though our base case still maintained a 24% upside, pitching Arista Networks as an investment had just become significantly more challenging. However, with Vaibhav’s encouragement, we remained confident that Arista still had room to grow.

The competition was spread out over two days. The first day consisted of a keynote address from Arthur Lev, the former Chairman of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and a networking dinner that was held in USC’s finest dining room. The second day consisted of the teams’ pitches: we were divided into rooms and were evaluated by a preliminary panel of judges. Following the pitches, we were treated to lunch and given the opportunity to learn from all of the judges in the form of a career panel. The three finalists were announced and we presented our pitches to the final panel of judges.

All facets of the competition were valuable experiences, but we were particularly impacted by the chance to present to notable members of the finance community and hear from them in the career panel. We were excited to finish in 2^nd Place, but are also looking forward to attending future competitions and continuing to represent Washington University in a positive manner in the financial services industry.

Guest blogger: Daniel Mangum, BSBA ’19, is a member of the Washington University Student Investment Fund.