Equity Associate (Putnam Investments)

Putnam Investments, a Specialized Investment Manager (SIM) of Franklin Templeton, is a diversified, equity-only asset manager with roots dating back to 1937. We manage a range of active equity portfolios with a focus on stock-specific opportunities. Our approach — stock-driven rather than style-driven — is designed to produce consistent outperformance, regardless of the market environment. As of December 31, 2023, the firm managed over $77 billion in assets under management in strategies covering the style, geography, and capitalization spectrum, as well as sustainable solutions. We offer these strategies in a number of vehicles to meet the investment needs of our global clients and investors. Available vehicles include mutual funds, institutional separate accounts, SMA/model portfolios, ETFs, CITs and UCITS.

This is a great career for creative, hard-working, self-driven and passionate people – you will learn about investing through researching companies and their industries! The Equity Associate position is a three-year program with the option for promotion to Analyst at the completion. In the full-time Equity Associate role, undergraduates will be covering stocks and making recommendations to our Analysts and Portfolio Managers about investing in their companies. The program begins with 6 months of training focused on accounting, financial analysis, and modeling as well as fundamental research, including analysis of material sustainability issues. Sessions are taught by outside professors and vendors as well as our Analysts and Portfolio Managers. Upon demonstrating readiness, the Equity Associate will begin to independently assume coverage of stocks within subsectors of the market. You will present investment cases on your group through written research and interactive dialogue with the sector team and Portfolio Managers. This gives the Equity Associate the opportunity to directly impact shareholder return through their recommendations.

• Build and leverage industry expertise – perform deep analysis on companies within covered industry subgroups, building relationships with company management teams, as well as with suppliers, customers, and competitors. Leverage that expertise to anticipate trends for each company, including an understanding of material ESG issues that will affect long-term fundamentals.
• Identify and develop insights on key stock drivers – figure out ‘what matters’ for each stock, performing creative and differentiated research to build conviction around likely outcomes for each critical variable and the resulting implications for companies’ profitability and stock prices.
• Communicate effectively to drive impact – articulate the investment case clearly through both written and verbal communication, iterate with incremental analysis to support or disprove the theses, and interact closely with Portfolio Managers to get the right stocks in and out of Putnam’s funds.

• BA or BS degree required. Candidates with superior undergraduate academic records from all majors are encouraged to apply.
• Self-driven individuals who thrive in an autonomous environment and are excited about the opportunity to make a meaningful impact, while serving as a fiduciary to Putnam’s shareholders, will do best.
• Prior work experience in the financial industry is helpful but not necessary. We are looking for a demonstration of passion that can be applied to investing.
• Strong work ethic coupled with the desire to win.
• Ability to learn quickly and to effectively convey conclusions.
• Team player; additive to overall process with a positive attitude, leadership by example, and active involvement at all levels to advance the investment dialogue.