The fund seeks to replicate the total return performance of the benchmark index, before fees and expenses, by investing in large-and mega-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.
As part of its strategy, the fund employs a passive management or indexing investment approach.
Next, the research team invests significantly in the component securities of the Index.
The Index is a proprietary, rules-based index designed to track the performance of the 100 largest, most liquid U.S. companies.
The team prefers high-quality companies with attractive returns on capital, higher profit margins, healthy balance sheets, adequate trading volumes and sustainable competitive advantage.
In addition, the research team employs a representative sampling strategy, which means that the fund will hold a portfolio of securities with generally the same risk and return characteristics of the Index.
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 employs a replication strategy, meaning it generally will invest in all of the component securities of the Index.
To the extent the Index concentrates in the securities of a particular industry, the fund will concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent as the Index.
Also, the fund generally may invest up to 20% of its net assets in securities or other investments not included in the Index.
The fund is non-diversified, which means that it may invest in fewer securities at any one time than a diversified fund.
Additionally, the fund may also seek to increase its income by lending securities.
The fund seeks capital appreciation in the long term by investing in small-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 high-quality companies that are engaged in a broad range of Industries.
The team favors companies that have high-quality businesses with superior market positions, manageable leverage and robust streams of free cash flow.
To identify these high-quality businesses, the team evaluates each company utilizing four criteria, such as management, culture, and incentives, the economics of the business, competitive advantage, and trajectory.
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 portfolio is focused, generally composed of at least 30 investment positions.
The fund is non-diversified, which means that it may invest a significant portion of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or small number of issuers.
Additionally, the fund may also seek to increase its income by lending securities.
