To achieve its investment objective, the Dividend Fund will under normal conditions invest at least 80% of its net assets (including the amount of borrowing for investment purposes) in dividend-paying common and preferred stock of companies. Generally, the companies in which the Dividend Fund will invest will have market capitalizations of $3 billion or more, measured at the time of purchase. The Fund invests primarily in the securities of issuers that the Adviser believes to have attractive valuations, potential for long-term growth, sustainable dividends, and other attractive financial characteristics. 

The Adviser has developed a detailed, proprietary analytical methodology called the Economic Margin® framework to evaluate a company’s corporate performance and estimate its intrinsic value. The Adviser believes that intrinsic value better explains historical stock returns than other commonly used financial metrics.

The Adviser uses this framework to evaluate a company’s corporate performance across time and against peers, as well as to determine attractive stocks for purchase.

In addition to a firm’s attractiveness from the Economic Margin® perspective, the Adviser will also consider as deemed necessary the use of other financial metrics such as price multiples, financial accounting ratios, price movements, and qualitative information discovered through company presentations and third-party research providers.

The Dividend Fund seeks to diversify its investments across a broad spectrum of economic sectors to reduce portfolio volatility and investment risk without sacrificing potential returns. In selecting securities within a particular economic sector, the Adviser’s goal is to identify companies that it believes have the potential for superior performance within each sector. Although the Dividend Fund invests across a broad spectrum of sectors, it may at times focus its investments in certain sectors.

The Dividend Fund may also invest in small and mid-cap companies, convertible securities, preferred stocks, rights and warrants, and other investment companies, including exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”).

The Adviser will typically sell a company from the Dividend Fund’s portfolio when the company’s stock price exceeds the Adviser’s estimate of the company’s fundamental value and/or there are other companies that the Adviser believes offer greater investment potential.

The Fund may invest on a global basis to take advantage of investment opportunities both within the United States and other countries. The Fund may buy foreign securities directly in their principal markets or indirectly through the use of depository receipts.