fund
This is one of our rated funds. They’re the ones our experts believe will do well for investors over the longer term. Top of the class!
Loomis Sayles US Equity Leaders I/A (GBP)
Targets capital growth by investing primarily in large US companies.
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337.10p
Price (Inc)
These are the shares in the fund that pay out an income to clients. The income is made up of the total dividends – the money a company can pay out to its investors – from the companies in the fund.
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Price (Acc)
These are the shares in the fund that don’t pay out an income to clients. Any dividends – the money a company can pay out to its investors – are reinvested into companies in the fund. Despite no income, the shares should be worth more over time. Good incentive, eh?
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1.00% 0.00%
Initial chargeSome funds charge you when you first invest, which is aptly known as the initial charge. They’re usually between 3-5% but at Bestinvest, we usually don’t charge you a penny!
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0.80%
Annual management charge
This is how much the fund management company charges to run the fund. It’s like paying a babysitter, dog sitter or house sitter (that makes well-informed, heavily researched changes to improve your baby/dog/house when needed).
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0.80%
Ongoing charges
This stands for Ongoing Charges Figure. It’s the cost of running a fund and includes admin fees, manager fees, administration costs, etc.
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0.40%
Yield
How much the fund is currently paying out in income to investors. It’s NOT to be confused with the overall growth of a fund – a very different thing indeed. It’s also NOT a guarantee of future pay-outs, just a snapshot. This is more what it’s not than what it is…
The investment objective of the fund is to achieve long-term growth of capital by investing in a focused portfolio of mainly large US companies. The fund is actively managed with a long-term, private equity approach to investing. The fund's manager seeks to achieve its objective by adding value through bottom-up selection of a limited number of securities. The fund defines risk as permanent loss of capital, not tracking error or short-term relative underperformance.
Fund summary
| Sector | North America |
| Structure | OEIC |
| Launched | June, 2013 |
| Size | £739m |
| Yield | 0.40% |
| Charging basis | Income |
| Dividends paid | Acc units only |
Charges
| Standard initial charge | 1.00% |
| Initial charge via Bestinvest | 0.00% |
| Additional bid/offer spread | 0.00% |
| Annual management charge | 0.80% |
| Ongoing charges figure | 0.80% |
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Investment process
The 7-person investment team has a collegiate stock selection and portfolio review process. Analysts are sector specialists and they do not use "screens" to select investments. Instead they look at the whole value chain in an industry to see which point in the chain gets the most value. This throws up stock ideas for further investigation. Each stage in the seven-step research framework is critiqued by peers before progressing to the next step. Analysts first spend up to 2 weeks on a "quality report" for a new stock idea covering: the target company's competitive advantage, its competitors, financials and managerial strength. The final 3 steps are covered in a "growth report" which takes a further 2-4 weeks, looking at secular drivers within the industry. Scenario analysis produces a range of outcomes for a company's "intrinsic value" given different assumptions in their models. This gives a Base, Bear, Best and Worst case for each stock & corresponding upside from the current share price. A company may stay on the "bench" until the price is right. Currently there are 130 companies on the bench. They buy when a stock trades near its bear or worst case and trim as it nears its best case scenario. Typically only 1 or 2 new names get into the portfolio each year. PE ratio is not a metric they look at. Instead they look at margins, top line growth, free cash flow and return on invested capital.
The Boston-based team undertake their own extensive stock research and rigorous in-house peer review. Companies that pass their strict quality and growth requirements are added to their "bench" of stocks to watch until the price is right - ie where valuation is compelling. Unlike many others, price to earnings ratio is not a metric that appears in their investment lexicon, preferring to look at: barriers to entry, profit margin, top line revenue growth, free cash flow, return on invested capital. We like the outcome of this process: a concentrated portfolio of high quality, high growth stocks, trading at a discount to intrinsic value, with low portfolio turnover and significantly different from the benchmark US index.
Manager research
Average monthly relative returns
- 15/16 0.41%
- 16/17 0.07%
- 17/18 0.53%
- 18/19 0.34%
- 19/20 0.29%
Bestinvest MRI
- 3 years 0.39%
- 5 years 0.33%
- Career 0.31%
- 3 years 93.50%
- 5 years 95.90%
- Career 99.60%
Performance figures are based on the average of monthly percentage returns relative to the benchmark index.
Aziz Hamzaogullari
Hamzaogullari is a vice president of Loomis, Sayles & Company and lead portfolio manager of the Loomis Sayles large cap growth strategies, including the Loomis Sayles Growth Fund. He has 18 years of investment management experience and joined Loomis Sayles in 2010 from Evergreen Investments, where he was the senior portfolio manager of the Evergreen Omega and Large Company Growth Funds. Hamzaogullari joined Evergreen in 2001, was promoted to director of research in 2003 and portfolio manager in 2006. He was head of Evergreen's Berkeley Street Growth Equity team and was the founder of the research and investment process. Prior to joining Evergreen he was a senior equity analyst and portfolio manager for Manning & Napier Advisors. He received a BS from Bilkent University, Turkey, and an MBA from George Washington University.
Track record
Aziz Hamzaogullari has 13.8 years experience of managing mutual funds in this sector. Over this period the average monthly return relative to the benchmark index has been +0.31%. During the worst period of relative performance (from September 2016 - December 2016) there was a decline of 8% relative to the index. The worst absolute loss has been 39%. Statistically, we estimate the probability that this fund manager is adding value, rather than being lucky, is more than 99%.
Periods of worst performance
| Absolute | -39.00% (October 2007 - February 2009) |
| Relative | -8.00% (September 2016 - December 2016) |
About the MRI
Our unique indicator: the Bestinvest Manager Record Index (MRI) measures the likelihood that the fund manager is adding value through their decisions. It is based on their performance record over the course of their career, adjusted for the amount of risk taken. MRI is an important contributor to our fund rating system but it is also vital to take account of qualitative factors. It is also very important to select funds to form a cohesive portfolio with an appropriate overall risk level.
Allocation
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Top 10 holdings
Data accurate as at 31 January 2020
| 7.3% | Visa Inc |
| 5.9% | Amazon.com Inc |
| 5.8% | Facebook Inc |
| 5.6% | Alibaba Group Hldg Ltd |
| 4.8% | Autodesk Inc |
| 4.5% | Microsoft Corp |
| 4.4% | Oracle Corp |
| 3.7% | Monster Beverage Corp |
| 3.2% | Roche Hldg Ag |
| 3.1% | Alphabet Inc |
| Source: Trustnet |
Sector breakdown
| Information Technology | 30.00% |
| Consumer Discretionary | 17.00% |
| Health Care | 17.00% |
| Consumer Staples | 13.00% |
| Communications | 12.00% |
| Industrials | 5.00% |
| Financials | 4.00% |
| Energy | 1.00% |
| Cash & Cash Equivalents | 1.00% |
Portfolio
As at 30/04/15: 34 holdings across 22 different business drivers. Average 38% discount to intrinsic value. 12% portfolio turnover just by names.
Constraints
30-40 stocks. Max 8% individual stock weight.
Key Investor Information