potential for earnings or revenue growth. The
principal type of equity securities in which the Fund invests is common stock. The Fund currently focuses
on larger capitalization issuers.
The Fund does not invest in companies whose primary
business involves alcohol, tobacco or gambling. The Fund may invest up to 25% of its net assets in foreign
securities, including up to 10% of its net assets in emerging markets countries, i.e., those that are generally in the early stages of their industrial cycles.
The Fund seeks to invest in companies with strong or improving fundamentals, attractive valuation relative to their growth prospects, and earnings expectations that appear fair to
conservative. The Fund’s portfolio managers focus on securities of issuers exhibiting long-term, sustainable earnings and cash flow growth that they believe are not yet reflected in investor expectations or equity valuations. To
narrow the investment universe, the Fund’s portfolio managers use a holistic approach that emphasizes
fundamental research and, to a lesser extent, includes quantitative analysis.
The portfolio managers closely examine company fundamentals, including detailed
modeling of a company’s financial statements and discussions with company management teams, suppliers, distributors, competitors and customers, and use a variety of valuation techniques based on the company in question, the industry in
which the company operates, the stage of the business cycle, and other factors that reflect a company’s
value.
The portfolio managers consider selling a security when a company is deemed to be
overvalued, if fundamental business prospects deteriorate, or the catalysts for growth are no longer present or reflected in the stock price.
The Fund is non-diversified, which means it can invest a greater percentage of its assets in a small group of issuers or any one issuer than a diversified fund can.
Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund
As
with any mutual fund investment, loss of money is a risk of investing. An investment in the Fund is not a
deposit in a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other
governmental agency. The risks associated with an investment in the Fund can increase during times of significant market volatility. The principal risks of investing in the Fund
are:
Market Risk. The market values of the Fund’s investments, and therefore the value of the Fund’s shares, will go up and down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably. Market risk may
affect a single issuer, industry or section of the economy, or it may affect the market as a whole. The value of the Fund’s investments may go up or down due to general market conditions that are not specifically related to the
particular issuer, such as real or perceived adverse economic conditions, changes in the general outlook
for revenues or corporate earnings, changes in interest or currency rates, regional or global instability, natural or environmental disasters, widespread disease or other public health issues, war, military conflict, acts of terrorism, economic crisis or adverse
investor sentiment generally. During a general downturn in the financial markets, multiple asset classes may
decline in value. When markets perform well, there can be no assurance that specific investments held by
the Fund will rise in value.
Investing in Stocks
Risk. The value of the Fund’s portfolio may be affected by changes in the stock markets. Stock markets may experience significant short-term volatility and may fall or
rise sharply at times. Adverse events in any part of the equity or fixed-income markets may have unexpected
negative effects on other market segments. Different stock markets may behave differently from each other and U.S. stock markets may move in the opposite direction from one or more foreign stock markets.
The prices of individual stocks generally do not all move in the same direction at
the same time. However, individual stock prices tend to go up and down more dramatically than those of certain other types of investments, such as bonds. A variety of factors can negatively affect the price of a particular company’s stock.
These factors may include, but are not
limited to: poor earnings reports, a loss of customers, litigation against the company, general unfavorable performance
of the company’s sector or industry, or changes in government regulations affecting the company or its
industry. To the extent that securities of a particular type are emphasized (for example foreign stocks,
stocks of small- or mid-cap companies, growth or value stocks, or stocks of companies in a particular industry), fund share values may fluctuate more in response to events affecting the market for those types of securities.
Growth Investing Risk. If a growth company’s earnings or stock price fails to increase as anticipated, or if its business plans do not produce the expected results, the value of its
securities may decline sharply. Growth companies may be newer or smaller companies that may experience
greater stock price fluctuations and risks of loss than larger, more established companies. Newer growth
companies tend to retain a large part of their earnings for research, development or investments in capital assets. Therefore, they may not pay any dividends for some time. Growth investing has gone in and out of favor during past
market cycles and is likely to continue to do so. During periods when growth investing is out of favor or
when markets are unstable, it may be more difficult to sell growth company securities at an acceptable
price and the securities of growth companies may underperform the securities of value companies or the overall stock market. Growth stocks may also be more volatile than other securities because of investor speculation.
Foreign Securities Risk. The Fund's foreign investments may be adversely affected by political and social instability, changes in economic or taxation policies, difficulty in
enforcing obligations, decreased liquidity or increased volatility. Foreign investments also involve the risk of the possible seizure, nationalization or expropriation of the issuer or foreign deposits (in which the Fund could lose its entire
investments in a certain market) and the possible adoption of foreign governmental restrictions such as exchange controls. Foreign companies generally may be subject to less stringent regulations than U.S. companies, including
financial reporting requirements and auditing and accounting controls, and may therefore be more
susceptible to fraud or corruption. There may be less public information available about foreign companies
than U.S. companies, making it difficult to evaluate those foreign companies. Unless the Fund has hedged its
foreign currency exposure, foreign securities risk also involves the risk of negative foreign currency rate
fluctuations, which may cause the value of securities denominated in such foreign currency (or other instruments through which the Fund has exposure to foreign currencies) to decline in value. Currency exchange rates may fluctuate
significantly over short periods of time. Currency hedging strategies, if used, are not always
successful.
Emerging Market Securities Risk. Emerging markets (also referred
to as developing markets) are generally subject to greater market volatility, political, social and
economic instability, uncertain trading markets and more governmental limitations on foreign investment than more developed markets. In addition, companies operating in emerging markets may be subject to lower trading volume and greater price
fluctuations than companies in more developed markets. Such countries’ economies may be more
dependent on relatively few industries or investors that may be highly vulnerable to local and global changes. Companies in emerging market countries generally may be subject to less stringent regulatory, disclosure, financial reporting, accounting, auditing
and recordkeeping standards than companies in more developed countries. As a result, information, including
financial information, about such companies may be less available and reliable, which can impede the
Fund’s ability to evaluate such companies. Securities law and the enforcement of systems of taxation in many emerging market countries may change quickly and unpredictably, and the ability to bring and enforce actions (including
bankruptcy, confiscatory taxation, expropriation, nationalization of a company’s assets, restrictions on foreign ownership of local companies, restrictions on withdrawing assets from the country, protectionist measures and
practices such as share blocking), or to obtain information needed to pursue or enforce such