Three Columbia Business School Students Won $100,000 With This Monster Presentation About Investing In Hertz

This year, three Columbia Business School students took home $100,000 from Bill Ackman's hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital, for their long thesis on rental car company, Hertz.

They were the winners of the Pershing Square Challenge, an investment thesis contest Ackman has held since 2008.

And it just so happens that two of the winners of Ackman's contest are members of SumZero, an online community for buy-side investors. They were kind enough to share the winning slide deck with Business Insider.

Here's the quick thesis from SumZero:

We recommend investors buy Hertz shares with a 12-month target share price of $36, which represents ~52% upside to the current share price. There are four main points to our investment thesis: 1) The market significantly underestimates the impact of Hertz's recent merger with Dollar Thrifty on car rental pricing; 2) The market underestimates the levers Hertz can pull to counter the negative impact of falling used car prices; 3) Hertz has strong growth opportunities in the U.S. and will realize significant revenue and cost synergies through its acquisition of Dollar Thrifty; and 4) A divestiture of the non-core Equipment Rental segment would unlock substantial value by deleveraging the balance sheet.