The fund seeks current income and capital appreciation by investing in companies across any size outside 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 domestic and foreign equity securities.
The team favors high-quality dividend-paying companies that are trading at discounts to their estimated intrinsic value.
In addition, the team prefers companies that either have paid a dividend in the 12 months prior to purchase, or are estimated to pay a dividend within 12 months following the purchase of the security.
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 that are committed to dividend growth, and that pay above-market dividend yields.
Also, the team considers factors such as dividend sustainability, balance sheet quality, growth characteristics, and valuation.
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.
Generally, the portfolio holds securities of 25 to 50 companies.
Additionally, the portfolio is diversified across issuer, industry, and country.
The fund will invest in at least three different countries, one of which will be the United States.
In addition, the fund will also invest at least 40% of its net assets in foreign securities, which will be in companies in developed countries.
The fund’s investment in foreign securities may include investing in securities traded on foreign exchanges, investing in American Depositary Receipts listed on U.S. stock exchanges, or investing in ETFs that invest in foreign securities.
The fund may also invest in exchange-traded funds that tend to pay dividends.
