Research Challenge

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2023 CFA Institute Research Challenge

The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual global competition that connects university students with investment professionals from within the CFA Society® network. The competition provides students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis and ethics and tests participants' analytical, valuation, reporting writing, and presentation skills.

Members of our society, along with a faculty advisor and an industry mentor, work with teams of students to value a stock, write a research report, and present their recommendations. Teams then compete with peers from other schools at local-level competitions organized and judged by CFA Society members and volunteers. The winning university team(s) from each local competition then advances to see who will become the sub-regional, regional, and global champions. 

Learn more and read FAQs See the schedule and get involved

CFA Institute Research Challenge hosted by CFA Society Minnesota

The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual, global competition that provides university students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis. Students work in teams to research and analyze a publicly-traded company and then write a research report on their assigned company with a buy, sell, or hold recommendation. 

Each Research Challenge season leverages the efforts of over 150+ CFA member societies, 3,500+ member volunteers, and more than 5,000 students from over 1,000 universities.

The Challenge gathers students, investment industry professionals, publicly traded companies, and corporate sponsors together locally, regionally, and globally for a real-world competition. Additionally, all participants are introduced to and held to the standard of the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct.

2022-2023 Participating Universities:

  • Bethel University
  • College of St. Scholastica
  • North Dakota State University
  • South Dakota State University
  • University of MN Duluth

 

2022-2023 Subject Company: General Mills (GIS) 

Past CFA Society MN Subject Companies & Winners

2010/2011 – Donaldson (University of Minnesota)

2011/2012 – Lawson Software, Inc. (University of Minnesota)

2012/2013 – Polaris Industries, Inc. (University of Minnesota)

2013/2014 – Stratasys Ltd. (University of Minnesota)

2014/2015 – Graco (UMD)

2015/2016 – MTS Systems (NDSU)

2016/2017 – Vascular Solutions (UMD)

2017/2018 – Fastenal (UMD)

2018/2019 – Bio-Techne (UMD)

2019/2020 – Tennant Company (NDSU)

2020/2021 – Apogee Enterprises, Inc. (UMD)

2021/2022 – Ecolab (UMD)

Schedule of Events

September
University Teams Form

9/26/2022, 10:00 AM
Kick-off Meeting

11/9/2022
Subject Company Analyst Day

1/19/2023
Written Reports Due

2/01/2023
Advancing Teams Announced

February 23, 2023
Local Finals

March 2023
Teams Submit Sub-Regional Presentations

April 2023
Regional Semi-Finals

May 2023
Regional & Global Finals

2023 Official Rules

Resources & Examples

Videos

To view videos of past local presentation rounds, view our YouTube channel.

Papers

2016-17.pdf

2017-18.pdf

2018-19.pdf

2019-20.pdf

2020-21.pdf

2021-22.pdf

2022-23.pdf

2022-2023 Minnesota Local Level Champion

University of Minnesota - Duluth, Team 1
University of Minnesota - Duluth, Team 1

​Thank you to our 2022-2023 Local Level Sponsors

      

Questions + Volunteer Opportunities

Industry Mentor: hands-on work with university students

Report Grader: review and grade student research reports

Presentation Judge: listen to and critique student stock recommendations

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