Dividend Value Strategy

Philosophy

We seek to own undervalued stocks of well-established companies in the large company capitalization range. These companies should have attractive and sustainable dividends and the potential for rising income. We define large as companies with market caps over $2 billion. Our goal is to provide superior long-term returns with the potential for attractive income and capital appreciation.

Our focus is on leading companies with competitive brand positioning, solid balance sheets along with consistent dividend, cash flow and earnings growth. We feel that dividend income provides a distinct advantage when fixed income yields are low, the outlook for inflation is uncertain and the broader market is volatile. In addition, dividend payers tend to be less volatile and outperform non-dividend paying stocks over the long term.

Process

• Portfolio Construction: Typically 30-40 portfolio holdings that are fully diversified across economic sectors.
• Buy Discipline: We are constantly screening for high quality companies with good brand recognition and strong competitive positions in their key markets with solid balance sheets, consistent cash flow and generally consistent dividend growth. We focus on companies that are trading at a higher dividend yield relative to the S&P 500 at attractive valuation levels and with a discount to their intrinsic value. We put an emphasis on dividend payment history, return on invested capital and cash flow sustainability. Our strategy allows for the inclusion of companies that will be initiating a dividend if we feel that they qualify under our other parameters.
• Sell Discipline: We sell stocks that have met our defined intrinsic value target or when we feel that fundamentals have deteriorated and potential downside outweighs the opportunity for gain.
• Risk Management: Position sizes are limited to 8% of the portfolio and sectors are limited to 25%.