company with a market capitalization of less than $3 billion. The market capitalization range of the Index changes constantly, but as of May 31, 2026, the range was from $894 million to $5,110 billion. Market capitalization is measured at the time of initial purchase. The Fund may invest in foreign (non-U.S.) securities.
The Advisor believes value companies to be companies that are undervalued in the marketplace. The Advisor considers traditional and other measures of value, such as (1) whether the company is included in a third-party value benchmark; (2) whether the company falls below the relevant equity market index average for any “value” metric, such as price-to-earnings ratio; price-to-book value ratio; price-to-cash flow ratio; price-to-sales ratio; or enterprise value-to-EBITDA, among others; or (3) the Advisor determines, based on a reasonable, consistently applied investment process, that the company exhibits characteristics commonly associated with value investments, even if it does not satisfy one or more of the specific metrics described above. In making this determination, the Advisor generally considers whether the company’s market price appears to undervalue its intrinsic value, including due to factors such as temporary business or market dislocation, cyclical pressures, or the company being out of favor with investors. For example, the Advisor may determine that a company constitutes a value investment where its current market price is below the Advisor’s assessment of intrinsic value, as derived from a discounted cash flow analysis or comparable company valuation multiples; provided that such determination is supported by fundamental or valuation-based analysis and one or more valuation or financial indicators (which may include, among others, earnings, cash flow, asset values, or comparable company analysis), as applied within the Advisor’s investment process.
The Fund follows a disciplined value approach, seeking to invest in companies the Advisor believes are trading below their intrinsic value based on fundamental research, while maintaining a consistent, long-term investment process regardless of market conditions.
The Fund seeks to invest in companies whose future prospects are misunderstood or not fully recognized by the market. The Fund employs a fundamental value investing approach which seeks to exploit market inefficiencies created by irrational investor behavior, such as investment decisions driven by emotions, biases, or cognitive errors. To identify these investment opportunities, the Fund employs a disciplined, bottom-up investment process highlighted by rigorous, internally-generated fundamental research. As part of the Advisor's investment process, the investment team evaluates the general and industry-specific Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) factors that the Advisor believes to be the most financially material to a company's short-, medium-, and long-term enterprise value. The Advisor believes this evaluation contributes to its overall analysis of a company’s value creation for shareholders and future financial performance. With the exception of diversification guidelines, the Fund does not employ predetermined rules for sales; rather, the Fund evaluates each sell candidate based on the candidate’s specific risk and return characteristics which include: 1) relative valuation; 2) fundamental operating trends; 3) deterioration of fundamentals; and 4) portfolio diversification. Relative valuation involves selling an investment when a company’s valuation metrics become high relative to comparable companies, the market, or its historical levels. Fundamental operating trends involves selling an investment when there is evidence of a decline in a company’s underlying business performance or industry conditions. Deterioration of fundamentals involves selling an investment when a company’s underlying business or industry
fundamentals, such as revenue or earnings, weaken. Portfolio diversification refers to selling holdings to maintain balance, manage risk, and optimize returns.
The Fund's investments in foreign securities may be direct investments or in the form of American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”) and Global Depositary Receipts (“GDRs”).
As of the date of this Prospectus, the top sector represented by the Fund’s underlying investments was financials. The Fund’s investments in various sectors may change over time.
Principal Investment Risks. As with any mutual fund, the value of the Fund’s investments, and therefore the value of its shares, may go down and you could lose all or a portion of your investment in the Fund. Many factors can affect those values. The factors that are most likely to have a material effect on the Fund’s portfolio as a whole are called “principal risks.” The principal risks of investing in the Fund are described in this section.
Market Risk. Market risk is the risk that the market price of securities owned by the Fund may go down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to factors affecting securities markets generally or particular industries represented in the securities markets. These factors include general domestic or foreign economic, political or financial market conditions, rates of economic growth and employment, trade and monetary policy, interest rates, inflation, and currency rates. Natural disasters, public health emergencies (including pandemics and epidemics), global conflict and war, military conflict, climate change, terrorism and other unforeseeable events that adversely affect individual companies, industries, sectors, and/or segments of the market, may lead to instability in world economies and markets and may have negative long-term effects. Any of such factors could have a materially negative impact on the value of the Fund’s shares or the liquidity of an investment and may result in increased market volatility.
Style Risk. The Advisor follows an investing style that favors value investments. Value investing style may over time go in and out of favor in certain market cycles. At times when the value investing style is out of favor the Fund's performance may be negatively impacted. Investors should be prepared to tolerate volatility in Fund returns.
Equity Securities Risk. Equity securities, both common and preferred stocks, have greater price volatility than fixed income securities. The market price of equity securities owned by the Fund may go down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably. Equity securities may decline in value due to factors affecting the issuer, equity securities markets generally or particular industries represented by those markets, including poor management on the part of the stock's issuer, shrinking product demand and other business risks, such as rapid technological developments or widespread adoption of emerging technologies (such as artificial intelligence).
Capitalization Risk. Large cap companies as a group could fall out of favor with the market, causing the Fund to underperform investments that focus on small or mid-cap companies.
The Fund may also invest in the securities of mid-cap companies. Investment in mid-cap companies may involve more risk than investing in larger, more established companies. Mid-cap companies may have limited product lines or markets. They may be less financially secure than