Global Focused Growth Equity Fund

Investment involves risk. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of current or future results and should not be the sole factor of consideration when selecting a product or strategy.

Strategy

Fund Summary

Actively managed and invests mainly in a diversified portfolio of shares of companies that have the potential for above average and sustainable rates of earnings growth. The companies may be anywhere in the world, including emerging markets.

Risks

The following risks are materially relevant to the fund. Please click here to view the definitions of the risks listed below.

• Currency
• Emerging markets
• Equities
• Geographic concentration
• Liquidity
• Investment fund
• Management
• Market
• Operational
• Small/mid cap
• ESG
• Style

Typical Investor

Investors who plan to invest for the medium to long term, and who:

• are interested in investment growth
• are looking to diversify their equity investments
• understand and can accept the risks of the fund, including the risks of investing in equities globally

30-Jun-2022 - David J. Eiswert, Portfolio Manager,

We sold shares of athletic sportswear brand Nike. While we continue to believe the company is a high-quality growth opportunity, we think the outlook for the firm's business in China is more unpredictable going forward, so we chose to exit our position in favor of names where we have higher conviction.
We sold shares of online travel agency Expedia to manage our position size. We think Expedia stands to benefit from pent-up travel demand as the pandemic wanes. We also believe that the market underappreciates the company's in-house vacation rental business, Vrbo, which has been resilient during the pandemic and stands to benefit further from normalization in travel. Further, Expedia's ongoing overhaul of its cost structure should boost profitability on the other side of the pandemic.
We sold shares of GE to manage our position size. We continue to think fundamentals, particularly free cash flow, are troughing, and we believe the firm's core businesses in aviation, health care, and renewables are well positioned for a better-than-expected recovery over the next few years, which should drive accelerating returns.
We bought shares in U.S. domestic airline Southwest Airlines. We think Southwest's high-quality network and organization, balance sheet strength, and strong industry position should help drive accelerating growth and return on capital as travel demand normalizes.
We bought shares of global oil and gas exploration and production firm Hess, which has valuable assets in the Bakken formation, Guyana, the Gulf of Mexico, and Asia. We like Hess's diverse asset base and highly competitive oil price breakeven, and we think Hess is well positioned for free cash flow growth acceleration as additional production capacity comes online, particularly in Guyana.
We bought shares of software-as-a-service sales platform Salesforce. We think Salesforce is an outstanding business, with strong leadership in its customer relationship management platform and ecosystem capabilities. The company boasts a highly recurring revenue subscription business model, and we think its quality and growth runway are underappreciated by the market. Over the near term, we think the firm is well positioned for accelerating returns as margins improve and the business continues to grow. In our view, the stock has been oversold amid broader negative sentiment in technology names, which created an attractive entry point.
We purchased shares of MasterCard on weakness. We continue to like MasterCard's focus on technology and planned expansion into China and believe the company is well positioned for strong growth once the world learns to live with COVID-19 and cross-border travel resumes.

30-Jun-2022 - David J. Eiswert, Portfolio Manager,

Shares of Brazilian ominichannel retailer Magazine Luiza sank on disappointing earnings results, broader macro pressure in the Brazilian market, and generally bearish sentiment for consumer growth names and concerns about higher inflation's effects on retailers. While positive physical store sales and faster-than-anticipated normalization in gross profit margins surprised to the upside, these positive data points were overshadowed by higher financial expenses and �"soft e-commerce" results. We continue to think Magazine Luiza has a best-in-class management team and is a strong, durable grower capable of sustaining well above industry average growth in e-commerce and marketplace retail.
GE is a global multi-industrial conglomerate currently in the process of a long-term corporate restructuring. Despite releasing quarterly earnings that exceeded consensus expectations, shares slumped as management indicated that upcoming performance would fall closer to the low end of the guidance range due to the negative effects of ongoing pandemic headwinds, geopolitical strife, inflationary pressures, and supply chain�constraints. We believe the firm's core businesses in aviation, health care, and renewables are well positioned for a better-than-expected recovery over the next few years, which should drive accelerating returns.
Shares of leading discount broker Charles Schwab fell after the company reported quarterly earnings in April that fell short of estimates due to�a disappointing topline miss driven by lower asset management fees and trading revenues. The stock was also pressured by concerns that deposits moving into higher-earning vehicles could impact balance sheet growth. Growth trends continued to be strong, however, and we like Charles Schwab for its diverse business model compared with other discount brokers, its top-notch management, its history of strong capital allocation, and its leverage to rising interest rates. We also think the company is benefiting from capturing the synergies from its 2020 acquisition of TD Ameritrade.
Shares of U.S. wireless carrier T-Mobile rose as investors remained encouraged by the company's 5G midband spectrum deployment, which is ahead of competitors, as well as the firm's progress on decommissioning Sprint's network. This reinforces our view that T-Mobile is well positioned for accelerating revenue and free cash flow growth. We continue to believe that T-Mobile has the potential to become the best wireless carrier in the U.S. as it realizes synergies from the Sprint merger, increases its exposure to suburban and rural areas as well as the enterprise wireless market segment, and further expands its 5G network leadership.

Disclosure on Vendor Indices can be found here.