The fund seeks capital appreciation in the long term by investing in small-size 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.
According to the investment team, a company is considered to be a non-U.S. company if the company is organized under the laws of or has its principal office in a country outside the U.S., or the company has its principal securities trading market in a country outside the U.S., and/or the company derives the majority of its annual revenue or earnings or assets from goods produced, sales made or services performed in a country outside the U.S.
The research process is driven by fundamental analysis of one stock at a time. Next, the research team evaluates a company to select securities for the portfolio.
Also, the research team integrates environmental, social and governance factors as part of its process.
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, a number of countries around the world will be represented in the portfolio, some of which may be considered to be emerging market countries.
At times, the fund may have a significant amount of its net assets invested in a country or geographic region.
Additionally, the fund may invest in securities of any market sector and may hold a significant amount of securities of companies, from time to time, within a single sector.