The fund seeks capital appreciation by investing in small-size companies in the United States.
The sub-adviser’s 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 companies that exhibit favorable business trends or prospects.
The research process is driven by fundamental analysis of one stock at a time. In selecting securities for the portfolio, the research team focuses on companies with superior fundamental attributes or relative valuations estimated to outperform their industry and sector peers.
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 invest in foreign securities, including emerging market securities.
However, the fund generally will not invest more than 15% of its net assets in foreign securities.
The fund is diversified across major economic sectors.
The fund may at times have significant exposure to one or more industries or sectors.
Also, the fund may hold a portion of its assets in cash or cash equivalents.