One thing you can be sure of from the annual Stock Pitch Competition — organized by the Terry College’s Student Managed Investment Fund (SMIF) in the Department of Finance — is the range of stocks up for discussion.

Previous pitches included companies specializing in health care, logistics, oil, Brazilian financial services, snack foods and streaming platforms. The 11th annual competition, held Feb. 20-21 at the Terry College, embraced the same spirit, with pitches boosting background checks, offshore vessels and potatoes (yes, potatoes) for the opportunity to take home $3,000.

This year’s winning pitch, made by the University of Chicago’s Ritvik Rai, was for Tidewater, a company operating one of the industry’s largest fleets of Offshore Support Vessels. Rai’s pitch bested 14 other teams during the two-day competition, edging out a second-place team from the University of Florida ($2,000 for Robert Craig, Ari Fooksman and Nico Schull), and the team from the University of Pennsylvania (Cindy Jiang, Amy Zhang, Fimii Ma) taking third and $1,000.

SMIF was also a winner. A record 109 teams applied to this year’s event — double from 2024 — representing 55 schools, including five from the Ivy League, Oxford, the London School of Economics and the Singapore Management University. The 15 teams accepted: the University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago, New York University, University of Michigan, Georgetown University, UNC Chapel Hill, UT Austin, Emory University, Western University, University of Florida, Indiana University, Florida A&M, Clemson University, Arizona State University and University of Georgia.

“The response to this year’s Stock Pitch Competition is a testament to Terry’s growing reputation in the finance industry and the dedication of our executive team over the past several months,” said SMIF Vice President Lauren White. “With the highest number of applications in the competition’s 11-year history, we attracted interest worldwide and even had schools reach out to us before the event was officially announced. The competition’s overall success was evident in the quality and depth of the final pitches. We received great feedback from judges, sponsors and contestants on the caliber and organization of the competition. Seeing the past six months of hard work pay off was rewarding!” 

The event kicked off on Feb. 20 with a panel consisting of Marc Bosworth (Masters Capital), Craig Inman (Artisan Partners) and Eli Yarborough (Frist Capital) and moderated by Larry Cummings (GENCapital). Invesco’s Bixby Stewart served as a keynote speaker before Friday’s competition, featuring three sets of five teams pitching to be in the final three.

Joining White in organizing the event were SMIF President Luke Ferrara, finance career coach Katy Dean and SMIF faculty advisor Johannes Kohler. The group secured $28,000 in support from sponsor companies, including Invesco (presenting sponsor), PIMCO, Peachtree Group, BNY Pershing, GENCapital, Capital Investment Advisors, CFA Society of Atlanta and Morningstar.

SMIF allows students to actively learn and manage an equity portfolio of more than $3 million in a hands-on environment. It provides undergraduate students with a distinct learning experience through portfolio management, security evaluation and a support network.