The Krause Fund

The Krause Fund was created in 1998 when Bill Krause, founder and CEO of the Krause-Gentle Corporation, made a generous donation to the University of Iowa and other schools in the state to establish undergraduate student-managed equity funds. These schools compete in the Krause Investment Challenge, an annual contest matching the performance of each institution's portfolio during the academic year. ----- The student analysts managing our fund are enrolled in Applied Equity Valuation, which seeks to make students experts in the valuation techniques and analytical tools used by real-world analysts. Students work in teams to evaluate companies based on industry and provide detailed investment recommendations. Analysts employ a top-down approach to research that integrates economic, industry, and company analysis, and use valuation techniques including discounted cash flow (DCF), economic value added (EVA), relative multiple (P/E, P/B, PEG ratio), and fundamental multiple analysis. Finally, all models are sensitivity tested against critical assumptions. At the end of the course, analysts deliver investment presentations to our Investment Advisory Committee.