The fund seeks capital appreciation by investing in companies outside 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 securities of issuers located in, or with significant business, assets, or operations i More

The fund seeks capital appreciation by investing in companies outside 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 securities of issuers located in, or with significant business, assets, or operations in, countries throughout the world other than the United States.

The team looks to invest in companies from a universe generally consisting of the 1,500 largest non-U.S. companies that it believes are undervalued on the basis of current price to an estimated normal level of earnings.

Then the team narrows the investable universe to a list of companies that are lagging in market price for temporary reasons and whose future earnings power is not reflected in their current valuations.

Then the research process is driven by fundamental analysis of one stock at a time. In selecting securities for the portfolio, the research team favors companies that are trading at a substantial discount to their estimated intrinsic value with superior long-term growth potential.

In addition, the team evaluates a company’s financial health and business prospects, estimated earnings, and a competent management team.

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 generally holds 60 to 80 stocks on the basis of valuation, risk and diversification. 

From time to time, the fund may invest significantly in securities of companies in the same economic sector.

Generally, the manager invests up to 10% of the fund’s portfolio in emerging markets.

According to the investment team, a company is considered to be located in an emerging market country if it is organized under the laws of, or has a principal office in, an emerging country.

Other factors in consideration would be if it has a class of securities whose principal securities market is in an emerging country, or if it derives 50% or more of its total revenue from goods produced, sales made or services provided in one or more emerging countries, or if it maintains 50% or more of its assets in one or more emerging countries.