While in New York recently the Bowden Investment group met Julian Robertson Jr. (back row, fifth from left), retired hedge fund manager. 

An impromptu meeting with a billionaire businessman was one of the highlights of the New York trip taken by the Bowden Investment Group (BIG), a student organization that manages a live stock portfolio. Each year the group visits the country's financial capital to tour the financial district and get a personal look at the professional business world.

This year the group met retired hedge fund manager Julian H. Robertson Jr., a native of Salisbury. He joined the group as they were speaking to Alex Robertson of Tiger Management, who explained his company and the complexities of investing. 

The New York trip started with an alumni reception on a Wednesday night. Thursday the students visited the ISI Group and sat in on a morning strategy meeting. They then toured Bloomberg headquarters and spent the afternoon at Neuberger Berman. Following the meeting Friday at Tiger Management they went to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. 

The BIG manages the Bowden Investment Fund, and receives course credit. According to its second report of the 2011-12 academic year [PDF], the fund ended September valued at $75,120. That was a 7.75 percent decline from the beginning of the month. The benchmark S&P was down 6.65 percent in that span.

The Bowden Investment Group recently released its March 2011 report. Calling it a "faily flat month," BIG President David Emery said the drop was due to struggling health care holdings. He also referred to a new investment impacted from the earthquake in Japan.

Overall, March was the first month of the current academic year in which the BIG Fund ended with negative returns (-.21%).

From Emery's "Letter from the President." [PDF]

March proved to be a fairly flat month for both the Bowden Investment Fund and the S&P 500 index. Our portfolio shed approximately 21 basis points while the market gained a meager four basis points. Our healthcare stocks had a disap-pointing month relative to the market with MedcoHealth Solu-tions, Stryker, and Novartis rank-ing amongst the worst performing stocks in the portfolio. ....

Our fund purchased shares of Rio Tinto this month. Rio was one of many stocks af-fected by the natural disaster in Japan and subsequently dropped soon after purchase. The stock has since enjoyed a full rebound.

The report includes details on a new investment, "Rio Tinto, a multinational mining company that we consider to be well-diversified compared to others in its industry. The company operates in all 6 of the major continents; it also brokers in copper, gold, silver, diamonds, nickel, iron ore, and a multitude of other metals and minerals."

The BIG also notes one of its big investment wins.

Chipotle Mexican Grill’s (CMG) meteoric stock price has more than tripled from when it was first purchased in late 2009.

This success has positioned CMG as our largest stock holding, even though we sold a third of our position last semester. It made up for around 6% of the fund value at the end of the month.

The Bowden Investment Group is a student organization which meets as a class and receives course credit by managing a live stock portfolio.

The Bowden Investment Group released its monthly update this week. The student group, which meets as a class and receives course credit by managing a live stock portfolio, continues to impressively navigate a shaky economy. According to its latest update [PDF] –

The balance of the Bowden Investment Fund at the end of October was $77,470.26, reflecting a cumulative return of 9.1% since inception. This was the highest end-of-month cumulative return in over two years, since August 2008.

According to the letter from the BIG president David Emery, the fund underperformed its benchmark for the month.

During the month of October the S&P 500 continued the rally that began in early September by gaining 3.8%. The return for the Bowden Investment Fund underperformed the market over the same time period. There were numerous reasons for this. Sprint and Pepsi declined during the month as a result of earnings failing to meet expectations. Big Lots declined due to lower expectations for the coming quarter. The group also decided to sell one third of its position in Chipotle Mexican Grill before the earnings announcement.

We believed that performance below expectations in earnings, revenues, margins, or any of a number of indicators would mean a sharp drop in the stock. I like to think that we were wrong, but for the right reasons.

The BIG is now working on analyst reports for new potential investments, including companies “as diverse as a cemetery owner and operator to video game publisher.”

In 2009, the Bowden Investment Group beat the market.

The student group, which meets as a class and receives course credit, has been investing in the market for 10 years. It completed its 10th year of investing by again besting its benchmark index, the S&P 500. The Bowden Investment Fund (BIF) had an annual return of 28.93 percent in 2009, compared to 26.45 percent for the S&P. That's according to its annual report. [PDF]

The BIF consists of stocks from numerous industrial sectors including: consumer discretionary, consumer staples, health care, industrials, information technology, and materials industries. No individual sector is to make up more than 20% of the portfolio's holdings. The BIG has recently chosen to stay away from the financial industry as many companies in that sector continue to recover from the crisis of 2008 and face greater governmental regulations that will likely have negative effects on profitability for some time.

The report also explains that, "In January of 2000 the BIG began with an account balance of $10,678.21, and has grown to an ending balance on December 31st, 2009, of $71,651.83. While the BIG would like to take sole credit for the growth of the fund, the investing decisions of the group as a whole over the last ten years is only a part of the reason for the success and growth of this fund. Over the last 10 years, the Bowden Investment Group has been the recipient of financial donations from our generous supporters which have allowed us to grow the value of our portfolio, expand our investing options, and enhance the educational experience of group members."