The fund seeks capital appreciation in the long term by investing in small-and mid-size companies in the United States.
The investment process starts with a list of companies in the benchmark index and the research team utilizes quantitative techniques and fundamental analysis to identify investment opportunities.
Next, the research team invests in growth-oriented companies exhibiting long-term capital appreciation potential and that are estimated to grow faster than the U.S. economy.
In selecting securities for the portfolio, the research team combines top-down secular/macro-economic trend analysis with bottom- up security selection.
The top-down approach takes into consideration factors such as interest rates, inflation, fiscal and monetary policy, global demographic trends, and the regulatory environment.
The research process is driven by fundamental analysis of one stock at a time. The team prefers companies that are exhibiting earnings growth potential.
Then the manager constructs a portfolio of stocks from a list of companies favored by the research team and allocates capital based on its conviction level.
The fund may also invest in emerging growth companies, as well as also invest in exchange-traded funds.
Additionally, the fund may invest up to 15% of its net assets in common stocks of foreign small- and mid-cap companies through the purchase of American Depository Receipts and/or foreign domiciled companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges.