COURSE NUMBER: MBA292T.1

COURSE TITLE: Investment Management: Hands-on Value and Values Investing

UNITS OF CREDIT: 2

INSTRUCTOR: Jerome L. Dodson

E-MAIL ADDRESSES: jerome.l.dodson@gmail.com

Prerequisites: None

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: Class attendance and quality of participation, oral and written reports.

REQUIRED READINGS: For the course, each student will have to purchase two books: The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham and Elements of Style by Strunk & White. The former will give students good insight into the value method of investing. Strunk & White will give the student a recipe for clear, effective writing. The quality of writing in the written reports will be an important element of the final grade. All the other reading assignments will be on-line.

ABSTRACT OF COURSE CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES: Learning Objective-- To gain knowledge of how to achieve excellent investment performance by investing in undervalued companies with superior environmental, social and governance qualities (ESG). Students will engage in interactive discussions with the instructor, Jerome Dodson, and will analyze companies for investment potential, based on his highly successful combination of values and value criteria. Some 50% of investments today are using ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) filters. This course will help students to develop cutting edge skills in a growing field.

COURSE STRUCTURE: Following four weeks of instruction, including introductions to value investing and qualitative factors in investing, and a three-week break for company research, each student will be expected to prepare and deliver both a written and an oral report on a company selected for investment. The oral report will be delivered first to the class, then the student will compose the written report based on feedback from the instructor and the class. The oral presentation should be no more than 30 minutes followed by a discussion of no more than 15 minutes. Financial statements should be written and handed out in class. Other visual information can be shown on a screen in the class. In preparing the reports, students should use the following source material:

1. Annual Reports including financial statements

2. 10-K’s

3. News articles in the business and general press

4. Discussions with management

5. Talks with employees if possible

6. Visit to a company site if possible

7. Reviews of product or service

8. Social Profile of the company (Instructor will provide students with access to two reports from previous students)

For the presentation, students should discuss the company’s business, its history, its financials, management and other related factors. The student should make a recommendation on the company including at what price to buy. Students should calculate the company’s intrinsic value either by a ratio analysis or a discounted cash flow model or both.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Jerome L. Dodson, Founder and Chairman of Parnassus Investments, the largest mutual fund firm dedicated exclusively to ESG investing with five mutual funds with $26 billion in assets. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and of the Harvard Business School, Mr. Dodson has managed four of the five Parnassus Funds and currently manages the Parnassus Endeavor Fund. According to Barron’s, 80% of actively-managed mutual funds earned less than the S&P 500 over the last fifteen years, while according to Lipper, the Parnassus Endeavor Fund has averaged a return of more than two percentage points above the S&P 500 since inception on April 29, 2005. This performance makes the Endeavor Fund #1 of the 403 multi-cap core funds followed by Lipper for that time period.