School also earned highest return in year of rocky performance
D.A. Davidson & Co. today announced that a student team from Portland State University has been named the winner of the annual Fred Dickson Memorial Award, the top award in the firm’s Student Investment Program. Portland State also completed the year with the best-performing portfolio out of 21 schools, while delivering a total return of 2.9 percent for the program year that ended August 31.
The Fred Dickson Memorial Award honors one team annually that is considered the most outstanding participant in D.A. Davidson’s Student Investment Program. In selecting the winning program, D.A. Davidson considers several topics in addition to investment performance, including how well programs stick to their stated investment processes, and the overall level of student engagement. As winners of the eighth annual award, the Portland State Vikings will receive a $2,000 check and an invitation to an upcoming D.A. Davidson event.
Ed Turnquist, Vice President and Financial Advisor, serves as the D.A. Davidson advisor to the Portland State team along with Portland State Associate Professor of Finance Dr. Piman Limpaphayom.
“Portland State has been incredibly involved over the years that I’ve been a mentor,” Turnquist said. “I think they really earned the Fred Dickson Award this year. They’ve put forth a great effort and now their performance matches the effort.”
For the program, D.A. Davidson provides student teams from senior-level investment courses at 21 Western and Midwestern colleges and universities with $50,000 to invest in the stock market, for a total commitment of $1.05 million annually. Each team makes investment decisions with the guidance of a local D.A. Davidson financial advisor and manages the portfolio for one year, starting Sept. 1. The program is designed to provide hands-on experience in finance, stock research, portfolio management and investment topics.
Top-performing teams receive a check for their college, earning half of any portfolio gains above 5 percent. D.A. Davidson absorbs any losses. However, in a sign of the difficult market environment of the past 12 months, no schools produced returns above the 5 percent threshold for the 2021-2022 program.
Portland State had the best-performing portfolio with return of 2.9 percent. For the same one-year period, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average had total returns of -11.2 percent and -9.1 percent, respectively. In all, 10 of 21 SIP schools outperformed the S&P 500 for the program year. Utah State University had the second best performing portfolio, with a 0.6 percent return. The Portland State and Utah State teams were the only two with positive returns on their portfolios for the recently ended program year.
In the 28 years since D.A. Davidson began sharing program profits, the company has donated $834,125 in profits to participating institutions. The Student Investment Program was launched in 1985 at Montana State University in Bozeman and gradually added colleges throughout the West and the Midwest since that time.
About D.A. Davidson Companies
D.A. Davidson Companies is an employee-owned financial services firm offering a range of financial services and advice to individuals, corporations, institutions and municipalities nationwide. Founded in 1935 with corporate headquarters in Great Falls, Montana, and regional headquarters in Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Omaha and Seattle, the company has approximately 1,525 employees and offices in 27 states.
Subsidiaries include: D.A. Davidson & Co., a full-service investment firm providing wealth management, investment banking, equity and fixed income capital markets services, and advice; Davidson Investment Advisors, a professional asset management firm; D.A. Davidson Trust Company, a trust and wealth management company; and Davidson Fixed Income Management, a registered investment adviser providing fixed income portfolio and advisory services.
For more information, visit dadavidson.com.