U of Maryland's Undergrad Fund Earns 'Street Cred'

What does HealthSpring actually do?

Essentially, HealthSpring's business works like this: The company signs up Medicare recipients and takes care of their healthcare in exchange for a check from "Uncle Sam." The company makes its money by keeping healthcare costs lower than the money they're paid by the government. Gelman says, "HealthSpring's business model is based on economies of scale. [HealthCare] can create lower costs through higher volume."

It's a business plan that's worked so far -- HealthSpring's net income increased over 170% from 2005 to 2006 ($29.3 million to $80.8 million) -- and it's a plan that Gelman feels will continue to work.

While fund members did have some concerns over the lack of analyst and media coverage of the stock (only three analyst reports came out after its latest earnings call, according to Gelman), they ultimately decided to add the stock to the fund.

A Look at the Financials

It has been a markedly tough time for the financial sector. The effects of the subprime lending fiasco were seen big-time recently, contributing to the high losses seen by Citigroup (C Quote) and Merrill Lynch (MER Quote) -- two stocks held by the Senbet Fund.

As of the fund's Nov. 7 meeting, Citigroup and Merrill were each down around 20% for the week, with other financial holdings like Lazard (LAZ Quote) and AIG (AIG Quote) trailing by a bit.