A team of Gonzaga University student investors has won the 2nd Annual Fred Dickson Memorial Award from D.A. Davidson & Co., the Great Falls, Mont.-based investment firm and the university announced last month.

Named for the company’s late chief market strategist, the award recognizes the participating team that demonstrates overall excellence and adherence to program objectives.

The Gonzaga team receives a $2,000 cash reward and an expenses-paid trip for five participants to D.A. Davidson’s Managed Assets Strategic Conference, a premier company event set for March 2017 in Seattle. The students on the team benefit primarily from gaining a solid understanding for what it takes to be a successful investment manager, the university says.

“Gonzaga students have been participating in this program for 19 years and, as a group, clearly appreciate the importance of a thoughtful approach to the investment process,” said James Ragan, the company’s director of Individual Investor Group Research, in a GU press release announcing the award. “We are very pleased to congratulate the Zags on earning this award based on the long-term excellence of their involvement in this program.”

Gonzaga’s student teams have produced among the best and most consistent investment returns in the program, D.A. Davidson says in a separate press release. In addition to finishing among the five teams with the strongest investment returns for the most recent program year, Gonzaga earned the top spot for portfolio return over the past five years on both an absolute (compounded annual return of 12.9 percent) and risk-adjusted basis. The Gonzaga team was No. 2 in the risk-adjusted return rankings for the three- and one-year periods and also qualified for profit sharing by earning higher than a 5 percent return in 12 of 19 years.

“The students and faculty have been incredibly engaged, and it’s a privilege to see them work this hard and have such a consistently excellent program and investment returns,” said Michael Jackson, D.A. Davidson’s branch manager for Spokane and the Gonzaga program adviser. “The class combines individual learning, with each student required to pitch a stock idea to the full class, with a team-based approach to determine allocation levels with risk considerations in mind. It’s an approach that works—and one that makes me proud to be a Gonzaga alum.”

The program was established at Gonzaga in 1997 and has been skillfully shepherded in large part through the work of Professor Bud Barnes, dean emeritus of the Gonzaga School of Business Administration, the university says. Barnes, who served as dean for more than 30 years, continues to teach the investments course associated with the program, it says.

D.A. Davidson’s Student Investment Program was established in 1985 to give college students a hands-on experience in investing while also learning skills and concepts that include investment research, performance measurement, teamwork and communications. The program is provided to 20 colleges and university teams in the West and Midwest.

Employee-owned D.A. Davidson & Co. claims to be the largest full-service investment firm based in the Northwest, offering wealth management advice and services as well as equity and fixed income capital markets services and advice. D.A. Davidson is part of D.A. Davidson Cos., a financial services holding company with more than 1,350 employees working in 23 states.