by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
With a portfolio of more than $2 million, it's the richest class at UNM.
Anderson Schools of Management's portfolio management practicum is a class where students use the Board of Regents' money to invest in stocks and manage a portfolio.
"Our No. 1 priority is to mold the intellect and character of the next generation of business leaders. Managing a portfolio like this is a glorious opportunity," said Chuck Crespy, dean of the business school. "When you're actually making decisions for $2 million, you realize you have responsibility."
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The board gave Anderson $2 million from its endowment fund to use for the class.
The first investments were made in December 2005.
Students who take the class will have an advantage because they can tell employers they worked on a $2 million portfolio,
Crespy said.
"The experience is extraordinary," he said.
Doug Manz, instructor of the class, said the portfolio closed the year out with almost $2.4 million.
Crespy said that balance is what was left after paying the regents interest on the $2 million and giving 4.5 percent to the provost's office.
"We started with $2 million, so we've had a good year," he said. "As of today, eight of our stocks are up, and five of our stocks are down, but the ups far outweigh the downs."
The most lucrative stock in the portfolio is FTL Group, a Florida utilities company the class invested in last May, Manz said.
The stock is up 47 percent from when it was bought, he said.
Crespy said this is the only portfolio program in the state so far. Some of the best universities across the country have this program, including the University of Texas and Ivy League schools, he said.
"It puts us in fairly elite company. There are only about 100 schools nationwide that have portfolio programs," he said. "Ours is one of the biggest."
Student Frank Hemingway, who is working toward a master's degree in business with a finance concentration, signed up for the class because he'll learn things he wouldn't in a normal class, he said.
"I thought this would be a really good opportunity to get real-world experience in the investment field," he said. "It'll also be a great thing to put on my rÇsumÇ - that I worked with real money."
The class has 22 students in two sections, one for graduate students and one for undergraduates.
The students' decisions are overseen by an advisory board made up of about eight investors from the Albuquerque area, he said.
"It's one of the few classes you get to take where you actually get to do something with what you've learned from a practical standpoint," Manz said. "Hopefully, they take the tools that they've learned in previous classes and then actually apply them."
Manz said the class consists of three major projects.
The first is for students to analyze a stock in the portfolio and decide whether to hold it or sell it.
Then the students work in teams of two or three and find a stock to recommend to the rest of the class. The class votes on which stocks to present to the advisory board.
For the final project, students give a formal presentation about the selected stocks to the advisory board.
They then construct a portfolio with the stocks that are approved by the board.
"The history of the class has been about 80 percent of the students' recommendations are accepted by students, then about 80 percent of recommendations to the board are accepted," Manz said. "So, the advisory board has the ultimate say as to whether that recommendation goes into portfolio."
Student Leah Gomez is working with Hemingway to examine real estate investment trusts.
Gomez works for an investment firm and signed up for the class to learn more about portfolios, she said.
"I wanted to be a part of managing a portfolio, because that's what I see every day," she said. "I'm looking forward to the stock analysis and getting to focus on a specific industry."
