Darron L. Carpenter

PNC Bank, NA (Investment Management) (PNC-IM) is the asset management division of PNC Bank, NA, a banking company headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The firm is ultimately held by The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC). PNC-IM manages assets for institutions and high-net worth individuals and provides tailored investments, wealth planning, trust and estate administration and private banking to high-net-worth families and individuals.

Founded by Bufus Outlaw in 1997, BOE Securities, Inc. is a private, value-based SEC-registered brokerage firm located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The firm is a subsidiary of the BOE Group, Inc. They are affiliated with BOE Research Private Ltd., which is located in Mumbai, India. BOE Securities is a member of FINRA, the NASD and SPIC. BOE Securities provides research services to institutional investors. Their research products and services are designed for use by chief investment officers, portfolio managers and financial analysts. The firm can function as an off-site research department for firms or simply as an input into their clients' proprietary investment processes. BOE Securities' quantitative research is produced on a weekly basis. They provide weekly ratings on U.S. large-cap stocks based on a variety of investment styles including value, growth, GARP and momentum. The firm serves as an introducing broker to Goldman Sachs Executions and Clearing LP. BOE's research team covers over 500 stocks, producing 4 annual reports on each company. Their research methodology combines top-down and bottom-up analysis and seeks to provide clients with key information required to determine the real value of a company. The firm begins with rigorous fundamental analysis that incorporates economic, industry and company data which results in forecast assumptions of a stock and its sector. BOE Securities scrutinizes all publicly-available information including SEC Filings and company transcripts and examines each company's customers, suppliers and competitors to gain overlooked insights into a company. They determine each company's intrinsic value by: (1) modeling the company's future earnings (2) understanding the company's cash flow and the forces which impact it and (3) providing a consistent, disciplined valuation framework based on discounted free cash (DCF). BOE Securities also looks at the relative valuation of each security, assessing current and historical metrics, as well as industry comparables. The combined valuation methods determine whether a stock is fairly valued and if the market has fully incorporated all relevant news into the share price. The firm's economic profit analysis provides the key information needed to determine each company's ability to create wealth for shareholders. BOE Securities uses economic data as a basis for constructing and evaluating asset valuations relative to returns on those assets. Finally, BOE Securities continuously monitors the stocks on their coverage universe, with emphasis on the key valuation drivers, and seeks to identify events which may impact stock value over time. BOE Securities offers quantitative equity research ratings on 4,000 companies. Their quantitative ratings are based on an advanced academic study of investor behavioral biases that cause the mispricing of securities. The firm's reports consist of buy alerts and sell alerts highlighting the most critical, action items. BOE Securities scores stocks according to a 4-point system that incorporates long-term contrarian factors and short-term momentum factors including: (1) PE to Growth (PEG) rankings (2) fundamental momentum, based on estimate revisions (3) relative strength and (4) shareholder value creation as based on earnings above the cost of capital. By summarizing this data into a weighted, back-tested composite score, BOE Securities then ranks the equities according to their alpha-generating abilities. Their process enables them to quantitatively grade any security from which they develop alerts and reports.