The fund seeks high total return in the long term by investing in mid-and large-size companies 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 securities of companies domiciled outside of the United States.
The team invests in high-quality companies demonstrating financial strength and management teams that are aligned with shareholders’ interests.
In addition, the team prefers companies that are trading at discounts to their estimated intrinsic value.
The team emphasizes companies domiciled in jurisdictions where reasonable business practices exist.
In selecting securities for the portfolio, the research team focuses on countries with established rules of law and political systems that allow for transparent and unbiased enforcement of those laws.
The team also considers attributes such as business quality, financial and management strength, and low absolute valuation of the underlying businesses.
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 manager ranks the securities and allocates the largest portfolio weightings to those investments that offer the greatest opportunity for appreciation.
The portfolio holds 25 to 50 companies and will generally hold no more than 10% of its total assets in cash or cash equivalents.
The fund may invest 20% of the fund’s net assets in U.S. stocks and 20% of the fund’s net assets in international stocks.
In addition, the fund may invest in depositary receipts that may be sponsored by the issuer or unsponsored.
The fund seeks primarily capital appreciation and secondarily current income in the long term by investing in companies in the United States.
The investment process is designed to identify companies that appear to be undervalued in relation to the company’s long-term earnings power. The aim of the strategy is to highlight quality businesses at attractive valuations.
Next, the research team considers companies that demonstrate characteristics such as high barriers to market entry, low intensity of competitive rivalry, and limited threat of substitution and bargaining power of suppliers and customers.
In addition, the team prefers companies with management teams that demonstrate successful track records of reinvesting earnings and operational effectiveness, and have relatively low levels of net debt.
The team focuses on companies that are estimated to have above-average growth potential and trading at a discount to their estimated intrinsic value as determined by future cash flows and/or net assets.
The fund has the flexibility to invest across any market capitalization, and may invest up to 20% of its net assets in securities of foreign issuers.
