The Young Investors Society Global Youth Investment Summit winners of the Global Stock Pitch and Case Study Competition each won a Summer internship at an investment firm.
Below, you can read Nalin’s experience at Boston Common.
“This summer, after winning the YIS Global Stock Pitch Competition, I did a virtual internship at Boston Common Asset Management, a sustainable investing firm in Boston. I worked with Brian Boyden, a Global Equity Analyst, on US homebuilders, and most of what I learned came from how he worked through the research with me.
Brian started by sending me his own comparison of D.R. Horton, PulteGroup, and Toll Brothers, with charts on profitability, debt, valuation, and earnings estimates. He also made it clear he didn’t think it was time to buy homebuilders yet because of weak housing starts and high mortgage rates, so the goal was to have one ready for when the market turned. I went through the companies’ filings to test his screen and found things it couldn’t show, like differences in how each builder accounts for its margins.
After both companies reported earnings, Brian explained how he actually picks stocks. First he makes sure a company is high quality. Then he looks at earnings momentum, which means whether the company is beating its own guidance and analyst estimates and whether those estimates are going up. Valuation comes last. He sent me analyst reports so I could see what the market was worried about, and I compared each company’s results to its guidance and to estimates.
Then he asked me to write a full report on PulteGroup and shared one of his own reports as an example. His feedback completely changed how I write, and how I incorporate my research into my writing. He told me I had “buried the lede,” and that portfolio managers need the conclusion, target price, and main bet on the first page. He also said charts are better than big blocks of text because people skim, and that a valuation model is a must, since a company being better than its peers doesn’t mean it’s worth buying. Over a few rounds the report went from 37 pages to 21.
My valuation showed PulteGroup was about fully priced, so it ended up as a pass. Early on Brian told me that even a pass is useful information, and since the stock has dropped since then, that definitely stayed with me!
Working with Brian showed me how much you can learn from someone who does this every day.
Thank you to Brian, everyone at Boston Common, and YIS for the opportunity.”
~Nalin M.
Redmond High School, Washington