Investment Process
We believe that our comprehensive research-driven approach to stock selection offers the best opportunity to achieve superior long-term performance on a risk-adjusted basis.

The Small Cap Value Equity portfolio management team collaborates with our fundamental and quantitative research teams, as well as the portfolio management teams for our Small Cap Core and Small Cap Growth products, to identify the best opportunities in the small-cap value arena and make timely buy and sell decisions.

Portfolio managers, along with experienced equity analysts who specialize by industry, conduct fundamental research. They have a thorough understanding of the industries and an in-depth knowledge of the companies they follow, acquired through years of experience and maintained by on-site and off-site visits with management teams, analysis of financial statements, due diligence of competitors, suppliers, customers, and products.

Our quantitative stock screening process evaluates sector-specific factors regarding valuation, business fundamentals, and catalysts and identifies stocks that have the potential to drive outperformance.

Portfolio Focus
The Small Cap Value Equity management team uses a disciplined process to identify companies that exhibit:

Compelling fundamentals, such as stable to improving earnings, cash flow, and balance sheet metrics.

Undervaluation, signified by a large spread between market and fair value and relative valuation measures.

A catalyst that could close the valuation gap between fair and market value within the next one to two years, such as a restructuring, new management, or new product or market opportunity.

Risk Management
Aside from guiding our efforts to deliver positive performance in up markets, our disciplined investment process – specifically our strict sell discipline – helps limit downside risk. We also manage risk by being fully diversified across all sectors and continuously monitoring individual issues and sector parameters.