Bestinvest says
The manager is a founder of Artemis and benefits from the freedom afforded fund managers by the company, investing in companies of all sizes without benchmark constraint. However, as the company specialises in UK equities he is also able to feed off the ideas of his colleagues. Bestinvest have a long relationship with Stuart and have always been impressed by his in depth stock knowledge. By focusing on out of favour companies he is able to buy at attractive valuations not available to managers investing in mainstream stocks. As a result he has built up a strong track record, though outperformance has been steadier in recent years as the fund’s size has increased.
The manager finds stock ideas from a variety of sources, including Artemis colleagues, his own thematic economic analysis and a network of brokers and consultants he has built over his career. He focuses particularly on companies experiencing share price weakness where he believes the long term business case is intact. Companies that can “self-help” through cost-cutting, financial restructuring or new management feature heavily in the portfolio, but it also features businesses that have simply fallen out of favour with the market. All investments will have strong franchises and quality management – company meetings are an important part of the process. Other areas for analysis include directors' dealings and details of cross shareholdings – the manager looks for alignment of interest between management and shareholders.