 | Aristotle Core Equity Fund | ||||
Summary Prospectus | April 1, 2024 | ||||
Investment Goal
Aristotle Core Equity Fund (the “Fund”) seeks long-term growth of capital.
Fees and Expenses of the Fund
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and Example below. If these fees were included, the fees and expenses shown would be higher. You may qualify for sales charge discounts if you and your family invest, or agree to invest in the future, at least $50,000 in Class A shares of eligible Funds of the Trust. More information about these and other discounts is available from your financial professional and in the Overview of the Share Classes section on page 32 in the Fund’s prospectus (the “Prospectus”) and in the appendix to the Prospectus titled Variations in Sales Charge Waivers and Discounts Available Through Specific Financial Intermediaries.
Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment)
| Share Class | |||||||||||
| A | I | I-2 | |||||||||
| Maximum Sales Charge (load) imposed on purchases (as a percentage of offering price) | 4.25% | None | None | ||||||||
| Maximum Deferred Sales Charge (load) (as a percentage of the purchase price or redemption price, whichever is less) | None | None | None | ||||||||
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
| Share Class | |||||||||||
| A | I | I-2 | |||||||||
Management Fee1 | 0.65% | 0.65% | 0.65% | ||||||||
| Distribution (12b-1) and/or Service Fee | 0.25% | None | None | ||||||||
Other Expenses | 0.01% | 0.01% | 0.01% | ||||||||
| Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | 0.91% | 0.66% | 0.66% | ||||||||
Less Fee Waiver2 | 0.00% | (0.01)% | (0.01)% | ||||||||
| Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses after Fee Waiver | 0.91% | 0.65% | 0.65% | ||||||||
1The Management Fee consists of an Advisory Fee and a Supervision and Administration Fee paid to Aristotle Investment Services, LLC. The Advisory Fee is borne by the Fund at the same annual rate for all share classes of 0.50% of the average net assets. The Supervision and Administration Fee is borne
separately by each class at an annual rate of 0.15% of the average net assets of the class.
1.Aristotle Investment Services, LLC has contractually agreed, through July 31, 2026, to waive its management fees to the extent that the Fund’s Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses exceed 0.65% for Class I and Class I-2. Aristotle Investment Services, LLC may not recoup these waivers in future periods.
Example
The Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other Funds of the Trust or other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 for the time periods indicated and redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods, that your investment has a 5% return each year, and that the Fund’s annual operating expenses remain as stated in the previous table for the time periods shown. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, the Example shows what your costs would be based on these assumptions.
| Your expenses (in dollars) if you SELL your shares | |||||||||||
| at the end of each period. | |||||||||||
| Share Class | |||||||||||
| A | I | I-2 | |||||||||
| 1 year | $514 | $66 | $66 | ||||||||
| 3 years | $703 | $209 | $209 | ||||||||
| 5 years | $907 | $366 | $366 | ||||||||
| 10 years | $1,497 | $821 | $821 | ||||||||
| Your expenses (in dollars) if you DON’T SELL your shares | |||||||||||
| at the end of each period. | |||||||||||
| Share Class | |||||||||||
| A | I | I-2 | |||||||||
| 1 year | $514 | $66 | $66 | ||||||||
| 3 years | $703 | $209 | $209 | ||||||||
| 5 years | $907 | $366 | $366 | ||||||||
| 10 years | $1,497 | $821 | $821 | ||||||||
Portfolio Turnover
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its holdings). As of December 31, 2023, the portfolio turnover rate of the Fund was 18% of the average value of its portfolio. A higher portfolio turnover rate reflects a greater number of securities being bought or sold, which may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund
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Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund’s performance.
Principal Investment Strategies
Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its assets in equity securities. The Fund’s investments in equity securities may include common stocks, preferred stocks, convertible preferred stocks, depository receipts, shares of publicly traded real estate investment trusts (“REITs”), warrants and rights. The Fund’s investments in depository receipts may include American, European, and Global Depository Receipts (“ADRs,” “EDRs,” and “GDRs,” respectively). ADRs are receipts that represent interests in foreign securities held on deposit by U.S. banks. EDRs and GDRs have the same qualities as ADRs, except that they may be traded in several international trading markets. Although the Fund may invest in companies of any market capitalization and from any country, the sub-adviser's investment process typically focuses on the universe of U.S. companies with market capitalizations in excess of $2 billion at initial investment.
In pursuing the Fund’s investment goal, the sub-adviser employs a fundamental, bottom-up research driven approach to identify companies for investment by the Fund. The sub-adviser seeks to identify companies that it believes are positioned to benefit from one or more of the following: (i) shifts in industry spending, government spending and consumer trends; (ii) gains in market share from innovative products and strong intellectual property; and (iii) cyclical trends in the industry in which they operate and capable management that can take advantage of those trends. The investment process and allocation decisions result in a portfolio that blends both value and growth characteristics. At times, the Fund’s assets may be invested in securities of relatively few industries or sectors. Currently, the Fund is significantly invested in the Information Technology Sector.
The Fund is benchmarked to the S&P 500® Index. However, the sub-adviser is not constrained by the composition of the S&P 500® Index in selecting investments for the Fund.
Principal Risks
As with any mutual fund, the value of the Fund’s investments, and therefore the value of your shares, may go up or down and you could lose money. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment goal. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. Italicized terms refer to separate Principal Risks that are each defined in the Principal Risks section below.
While the Fund may be subject to various risk exposures at any given time depending on market conditions and other factors impacting holdings and investment strategies, the Fund under normal circumstances is subject to the following principal risks:
•Equity Securities Risk: Equity securities tend to go up and down in value, sometimes rapidly and unpredictably. An equity security’s market value may decline for a number of reasons that relate to particular issuer, such as management performance, financial leverage, reduced demand for the issuer’s products or services, or as a result of factors that affect the issuer’s industry or market more broadly, such as labor
shortages, increased production costs, or competitive conditions within an industry.
•Large-Capitalization Companies Risk: Although large-capitalization companies tend to have more stable prices than smaller, less established companies, they are still subject to equity securities risk. In addition, large-capitalization equity security prices may not rise as much as prices of equity securities of small-capitalization companies.
•Small-Capitalization Companies Risk: Small-capitalization companies may be more susceptible to liquidity risk and price volatility and be more vulnerable to economic, market and industry changes than larger, more established companies.
•Mid-Capitalization Companies Risk: Mid-capitalization companies may be subject to greater price volatility and may be more vulnerable to economic, market and industry changes than larger, more established companies.
•Sector Focus Risk: The Fund may invest a larger portion of its assets in one or more sectors than many other mutual funds, and thus will be more susceptible to negative events affecting those sectors.
•ETF Risk: Shares of ETFs typically trade on securities exchanges and may at times trade at a premium or discount to their net asset values. If the Fund has to sell shares of an ETF when the shares are trading at a discount, the Fund will receive a price that is less than the ETF’s net asset value per share. In addition, an ETF may not replicate exactly the performance of the benchmark index it seeks to track. An investment in an ETF is an investment in another investment company and therefore, the Fund’s shareholders will indirectly bear a proportionate share of any fees and expenses of the ETFs in which the Fund invests. The Fund will pay brokerage commissions in connection with the purchase and sale of shares of ETFs.
•Foreign Investment Risk: The prices of foreign securities may be more volatile than the prices of securities of U.S. issuers because of economic and social conditions, political developments, and changes in the regulatory environments of foreign markets. Foreign securities include ADRs, EDRs and GDRs. Unsponsored ADRs, EDRs and GDRs are organized independently and without the cooperation of the foreign issuer of the underlying securities and involve additional risks because U.S. reporting requirements do not apply. In addition, the issuing bank may deduct shareholder distribution, custody, foreign currency exchange, and other fees from the payment of dividends.
•Warrants and Rights Risk: Warrants and rights may lack a liquid secondary market for resale. The prices of warrants and rights may fluctuate as a result of speculation or other factors. Warrants and rights can provide a greater potential for profit or loss than an equivalent investment in the underlying security. Prices of warrants and rights do not necessarily move in tandem with the prices of their underlying securities and therefore are highly volatile and speculative investments. If a warrant or right expires without being exercised, the Fund will lose any amount paid for the warrant or right.
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•Preferred Stock Risk: Preferred stock represents an equity interest in a company that generally entitles the holder to receive, in preference to the holders of other stocks such as common stock, dividends and a fixed share of the proceeds resulting from a liquidation of the company. The market value of preferred stock is subject to company-specific and market risks applicable generally to equity securities and is also sensitive to changes in the company’s creditworthiness, the ability of the company to make payments on the preferred stock, and changes in interest rates, typically declining in value if interest rates rise. Convertible preferred stock allows the holder to convert the preferred shares into a fixed number of common shares, usually after a predetermined date. Like preferred stock, convertible preferred stock generally pays a dividend at a specified rate and has preference over common stock in the payment of dividends but ranks behind bonds, including convertible bonds, in priority upon liquidation.
•Active Management Risk: A portfolio manager’s judgments about the potential value or price appreciation of an investment may prove to be incorrect or fail to have the intended results, which could negatively impact the Fund’s performance.
•Underlying Fund Risk: Because the Fund is available for investment by one or more “fund of funds” of the Trust and thus may have a significant percentage of its outstanding shares held by such fund of funds, a change in asset allocation by the fund of funds could result in large redemptions out of the Fund, causing the sale of securities in a short timeframe and potential increases in expenses to the Fund and its remaining shareholders, both of which could negatively impact performance.
•Information Technology Sector Risk: Information Technology companies face several risks, including operating in rapidly changing fields, abrupt or erratic market movements, limited product lines, markets or financial resources, management that is dependent on a limited number of people, short product cycles, aggressive pricing of products and services, new market entrants, government regulation and patent and intellectual property rights and rapid obsolescence of products and services due to technological innovations or changing consumer preferences. In addition, many U.S. technology companies have diverse operations, with products or services in foreign markets, exposing them to foreign markets risk.
Performance
The bar chart and Average Annual Total Returns table below provide some indication of the risk of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the performance of the Fund from year to year and showing how the Fund’s returns compare to a broad-based market index. The Fund performance shown below for periods prior to October 23, 2023 is the performance of Aristotle Core Equity Fund (the “Predecessor Fund”), a series of Investment Managers Series Trust, as a result of a reorganization of the Predecessor Fund into the Fund on October 23, 2023. The Predecessor Fund was managed by the same portfolio management team using investment policies, objectives, guidelines and restrictions that were substantially similar to those of the Fund. The bar chart shows the performance of the
Predecessor Fund’s Class I shares from inception through October 22, 2023 and the performance of the Fund’s Class I-2 shares from October 23, 2023 through December 31, 2023.
Performance reflects fee waivers or expense limitations, if any, that were in effect during the periods presented. Past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information may be obtained at our website: aristotlefunds.com, or by calling customer service at 844-ARISTTL (844-274-7885).
Calendar Year Total Returns (%)1 | ||
Best and worst quarterly performance reflected within the bar chart: Q2 2020: 22.13%; Q2 2022: (17.49)%
Average Annual Total Returns (For the periods ended December 31, 2023) | 1 year | 5 years | Since Inception | ||||||||
Class I-2 (incepted March 31, 2017) (before taxes) | 23.27% | 15.19% | 12.34% | ||||||||
Class I-2 (after taxes on distributions) | 23.03% | 14.94% | 12.10% | ||||||||
Class I-2 (after taxes on distributions and Sales of Fund shares) | 13.93% | 12.25% | 10.01% | ||||||||
S&P 500® Index (reflects no deductions for fees, expenses or taxes) (based on March 31, 2017 the inception date of the Predecessor Fund) | 26.29% | 15.69% | 12.95% | ||||||||
The after-tax returns (a) are calculated using the highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes, and (b) are not relevant to investors who hold their shares through tax-advantaged arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor’s tax situation and may differ from those shown. In some instances, the return after taxes on distributions and sale of Fund shares may be greater than the return before taxes because the investor is assumed to be able to use the capital loss of the sale of Fund shares to offset other taxable capital gains.
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Management
Investment Adviser – Aristotle Investment Services, LLC
Sub-Adviser – Aristotle Atlantic Partners, LLC. The persons jointly and primarily responsible for day-to-day management of the Fund are:
| Portfolio Manager and Primary Title with Sub-Adviser | Experience with Fund and Predecessor Fund | ||||
| Owen Fitzpatrick, CFA, Principal, Managing Director and Lead Portfolio Manager | Since 2017 | ||||
| Thomas M. Hynes, Jr., CFA, Principal, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager | Since 2017 | ||||
| Brendan O’Neill, CFA, Principal, Director and Portfolio Manager | Since 2017 | ||||
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
Once you have established an account, you may generally purchase or redeem (sell) shares of a Fund (each a “Fund,” together the “Funds”) of the Aristotle Funds Series Trust (“Aristotle Funds” or the “Trust”) on any business day by mail (Aristotle Funds, c/o U.S. Bank Global Fund Services, P.O. Box 701, Milwaukee, WI 53201-0701), overnight mail (Aristotle Funds, c/o U.S. Bank Global Fund Services, 615 E. Michigan Street, 3rd Floor, Milwaukee, WI 53202), by telephone by calling customer services at 844-ARISTTL (844-274-7885) or by wire or electronic funds transfer. For accounts established through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary, please contact your financial professional to purchase or redeem shares.
For Class A and Class C shares, the minimum initial investment is $1,000, and the minimum subsequent investment is $50. For Class I shares, the minimum initial investment is $500,000 for Institutional Investors, with no minimum for subsequent investments. Class I shares are only available to eligible investors. Class R6 shares generally have no minimum for initial or subsequent investments, except for certain institutional investors who purchase Class R6 shares directly with the Trust’s transfer agent for which the minimum initial investment is $1,000,000 with no minimum for subsequent investments. Class R6 shares are only available to eligible investors. There is no minimum initial or subsequent investment for Class I-2 shares, or Class I-3 shares of Aristotle Small Cap Equity Fund, because they are generally only available to investors in fee-based advisory programs. Not all classes are available for direct investment for all Funds. The Trust reserves the right to waive or change minimum investment amounts, including for certain types of retirement plans. The Trust and Foreside Financial Services, LLC, the distributor, and principal underwriter for the Trust (the “Distributor”), reserve the right to reject any request to buy shares.
Purchase and sale orders for accounts held directly with the Trust are executed at the next net asset value (“NAV”), plus or minus any applicable sales charges, determined after the transfer agent of the Trust receives an order in proper form at its processing location in Milwaukee, WI. Purchase and sale orders for accounts held with a financial intermediary are executed at the next NAV, plus or minus any applicable sales charges, determined after the order is received by the financial intermediary in proper form.
Tax Information
Each Fund’s distributions are taxable and will be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains, unless you are investing through a tax-deferred arrangement such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account, distributions from which may be taxable upon withdrawal.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of a Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as through a “fund supermarket” where a variety of mutual funds from different fund families are offered through your broker-dealer or other financial intermediary), the Trust and its related companies may pay the broker-dealer or other financial intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other financial intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your financial professional or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
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