Student Managed Investment Fund

Harrison Colville ’19 pitched Procter & Gamble (PG) to the Student Managed Investment Fund (SMIF) on March 4, 2019. Founded in 1837, Procter & Gamble’s goal is to provide branded products and services of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the world’s consumers, now and for generations to come. P&G recently consolidated their strategy and currently has 65 brands throughout 5 different revenue segments. The various segments include fabric and home care; baby, feminine, and family care; beauty; health care; and grooming. P&G’s newly focused strategy and notable reduction in expenses provides opportunities for growth and continued sustainability. P&G has enormous global influence and works hard to implement and achieve sustainability goals. Programs like Dawns wildlife rescue and Tide loads of hope are two examples of the countless efforts P&G puts forward to give back to communities across the globe. In 2018, P&G released exceptional financial results and generated $66.9 billion is revenue. The class voted to buy 150 shares of P&G making it 1.57% of the equity portfolio.

Ethan Fisher ’19 pitched Welltower (WELL) to the Student Managed Investment Fund (SMIF) on February 26, 2019. Founded in 1970, Welltower is a real estate investment trust that invests in senior housing, assisted living, and memory care communities, post-acute care facilities, and medical outpatient buildings. Welltower aims to deliver the health care infrastructure necessary to facilitate better treatment at lower costs and keep patients out of the hospital. They target their investments in affluent, high barrier markets given the trend that urban seniors are hoping to age in place. A major driver for Welltower’s future growth is the aging of the baby boomer generation and synergies between Welltower and major health systems. The company has over 1,600 properties across 46 U.S. states, the U.K. and Canada and 320,000 patients currently occupying their facilities. Welltower is expected to have strong 2019 earnings with an FFO per share increase of 4% and an NOI increase of 3.50%. Additionally, the company plans to execute $1.5B in acquisitions for 2019. SMIF voted to buy 135 shares of Welltower.

Graham Gearhart ’19 pitched Waste Management (WM) to the Student Managed Investment Fund (SMIF) on February 25, 2019. Waste Management focuses on waste collection and disposal through their network of vehicles, transfer stations, and landfills. In addition to waste disposal, WM also collects recycling materials and refurbishes those materials into a commodity that is then sold. The company is very focused on environmental and sustainability initiatives and other ways to help the environment. They have began to overhaul their fleet by converting about 25% of their diesel trucks to natural gas, some of which is taken from landfill gas produced at their landfills.They are also an innovator in the environmental and waste services industry in terms of technology, as they have implemented route optimization software for their fleet, and improved their digital presence with a better website and mobile applications in order to increase customer satisfaction and decrease churn. Gearhart believes that Waste Management is well positioned for the future because of their sustainability focus, stable revenues, and defensive profile, as they significantly outperformed the S&P during the recession of 2008-2009. The class voted to buy 145 shares of WM, creating an active risk position of 1.40%.

Connor O’Brien ’19 pitched HEICO (NYSE: HEI) to the Student Managed Investment Fund on February 25.  Founded in 1957 by Dr. William Heinicke, HEICO is an aerospace, technology, and defense company that supplies parts and components to a variety of niche industries.  In addition to being the world’s largest independent provider of FAA approved aircraft replacement parts, HEICO designs and manufactures advanced technology components for systems by the U.S. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, spacecraft, satellites, medical equipment, wireless communications systems, computers, and digital storage. Since undergoing a major restructuring in 1990, HEICO has grown to a market cap of $11.45 billion.  Shareholders have realized consistent, meaningful growth that has outperformed both the NYSE Composite Index and the Dow Jones U.S. Aerospace Index in the past year, the past five years, and since 1990.  In 2018, the company enjoyed revenue growth of 16.59% and net income growth of 21.81%.

Charles Wen ’19 pitched Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) to the Student Managed Investment Fund on February 19, 2019. Verizon’s mission is to leverage its leadership in the wireless network to continuously provide customers with the best user experience through its highly reliable network services and qualities. With its 26% market share of subscribers, Verizon has an enormous presence in the telecom sector. Verizon’s services and equipment currently consist of data, broadband, voice, premium content and tablet etc. Verizon led the industry with innovative transformation that will bring Verizon to the next stage of staggering growth. The class looks forward to capitalizing the gain from the realization of huge profit when the 5G services will start to bring profit for Verizon in 2022, given the fact that 70% of the overall revenue came from the Wireless segment and Verizon will improve the profitability of this segment with its successful launch and execution of the 5G plan. The company posted constant and sustainable growth of revenue stream and dividends. The class voted to buy 200 shares of Verizon.

Joe Schreiner ’19 pitched Scotts Miracle-Gro (SMG) to the Student Managed Investment Fund (SMIF) on February 18, 2019. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company was originally founded by O.M. Scott in 1868 as a premium seed company for the U.S. agriculture industry. The company grew from a leading lawn care business to an international marketer of industry-leading brands with a 1995 merger with Miracle-Gro. The company’s mission is to continually strengthen its position as the world’s leading marketer of branded products for lawn and garden while meeting profit and return on investment growth goals. Scotts Miracle-Gro sells some of the most recognizable consumer lawn and garden brands such as Scotts, Miracle-Gro, Nature’s Care, LiquaFeed, and Osmocote, Ortho, Home Defense, and Tomcat. Through its Hawthorne segment, SMG is a leading manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of hydroponics systems which are essential to the growing cannabis industry. Hydroponics provides a tremendous amount of growth potential, particularly once recreational adult use of cannabis becomes federally legal in the U.S. The company is also committed to returning cash to shareholders through a consistent, strong dividend, and share repurchases. The class voted to buy 200 shares of SMG.

Kayla Scoli ’19 pitched Welltower Inc. (WELL) to the Student Managed Investment Fund (SMIF) on February 18, 2019. Founded in 1970, Welltower is a real estate investment trust that invests in senior housing, assisted living and memory care communities, post-acute care facilities, and medical office buildings. They were the first and are the largest Healthcare-focused REIT. Welltower aims to deliver the health care infrastructure necessary to facilitate better treatment at lower costs and keep patients out of the hospital. They target their investments in affluent, high barrier markets given the trend that urban seniors are hoping to age in place. A major driver for Welltower’s future growth is the aging of the baby boomer generation and synergies between Welltower and major health systems. Over the last 6 months they have invested $2.25B in acquisitions. Additionally, the firm recently reported an increase of 40 bps in senior housing occupancy and expect this to continue trending upward. Management also predicts FFO/share to increase 4% in 2019 over 2018 results. The class voted to buy 130 shares of Welltower.

Fran Kinniry ’19 pitched Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) to the Student Managed Investment Fund (SMIF) on February 11, 2019. Founded in 1967, the mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride and company spirit. Southwest Airlines is the fourth biggest U.S. airline. The company fits a niche market among the big three airlines (Delta, United and American) and ultra low cost carriers (Jet Blue and Spirit). Southwest attempts to offer all the amenities of major airlines at a fraction of the cost. They are famous for having the best customer service for 23 out of the past 27 years and treating their employees extremely well. Southwest has a market capitalization of 32.21 billion. SMIF voted to buy 300 shares of Southwest Airlines and selling 3 calls for April 18, 2019.