The fund seeks capital appreciation in the long term by investing in companies across any size outside the United States.
The fund manages assets with the help of two sub-advisers namely Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss, LLC and Causeway Capital Management LLC.
The fund prefers a multi-manager investing approach with the aim of reducing volatility and downside risk.
The sub-advisers’ 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 focuses on securities that are tied economically to countries outside the U.S.
The team considers a security to be tied economically to countries outside the U.S. if the issuer of the security has its principal place of business or principal office outside the U.S., has its principal securities trading market outside the U.S., or derives a majority of its revenue from outside the U.S.
Additionally, the team prefers companies that are estimated to trade below their fair values.
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.
Also, the fund invests in emerging market securities.
In addition, the fund utilizes an index sampling strategy to invest up to 30% of its net assets to match the performance of the Index.