Long-term growth of capital.
The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing at least 80% of its net assets under normal circumstances in common and preferred stocks and other types of equity securities of issuers that are tied economically to the U.S. An issuer is considered tied economically to the U.S. if at least 50% of its revenues or profits are from business activities in the U.S., or at least 50% of its assets are situated in the U.S., or the principal trading market for its securities is in the U.S.
The portfolio managers use a Multi-Style® investment strategy that combines various investment management styles, including growth and relative value. As a result, the portfolio has characteristics similar to the Standard & Poor’s 500 IndexSM (S&P 500® Index), including average market capitalization and dividend yield potential. Stock selection is key to the performance of the Fund.
Through fundamental company research involving analyzing financial statements and other information about a company, the portfolio managers seek to identify securities of large companies with characteristics such as:
- Low valuations in relation to their peers, the market, their historical valuation or their growth rate
- Financial strength (favorable debt ratios and other financial characteristics)
- High quality management focused on generating shareholder value
The Fund also may invest to a lesser extent in foreign (non-U.S.) securities and debt securities. The portfolio managers may use various investment techniques (which may involve the use of derivative instruments such as swaps, options, futures and options on futures) to adjust the Fund’s investment exposure, but there is no guarantee that these techniques will work.
The U.S. Multi-Style® Equity strategy is based upon the premise that value and growth style leadership is unpredictable. We seek to neutralize the need to make a tactical style decision and to remain focused on long-term stock selection. Three independently managed portfolios: Relative Value; Disciplined Growth; and Research Select, are combined to produce a strategy that is style-neutral to the S&P 500® benchmark.
All investment teams follow a disciplined, research driven and bottom-up process, which leverages the network of GE resources. The value portion of the strategy is managed in a "relative value" style, targeting attractively valued stocks across all sectors with a catalyst for change over a three- to four-year period. The growth portion of the strategy is managed using a "growth at a reasonable price" approach, targeting companies with dominant market share and predictable, above-average growth. The concentrated research, or "Best Ideas," portion of the strategy captures the top overweights of the independent research analysts, and serves to amplify the weightings in those stocks in which we have the greatest degree of conviction. GEAM's Chief Investment Officer for U.S. Equities provides oversight to sustain the optimal allocation and style neutrality within the overall portfolio.
1 The investment process is fluid and may change from time to time without prior public notice as market conditions and portfolio managers change.
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The Fund is managed by a team of portfolio managers that includes Stephen V. Gelhaus, George A. Bicher, Paul C. Reinhardt and Thomas Lincoln. Each of the foregoing portfolio managers manages (or co-manages) one of three sub-portfolios, which comprise the Fund. The three sub-portfolios are managed independently of each other and the portfolio managers have full discretion over their sub-portfolio. The weightings to each sub-portfolio in the Fund, which can be changed at any time but generally remain stable for 18 to 24 months, are driven by the objective of keeping the Fund "style neutral" such that it combines growth and value investment management styles and does not tend to favor either style.
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- Undervalued vs market, peers, earnings
- Potential for
rising EPS, Free C/F, ROCE
- Growing dividend stream
- Catalyst to unlock value
- Above-average,
predictable earnings growth
- Strong financials:
e.g. free cash flow generation
- Industry leadership
- Proven management
track record
- Best ideas
of U.S.Research Enhanced product
- A competitive
edge within its respective industry
- Solid fundamentals
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- Attractive valuation
- Consistent execution and strategic direction
- Fundamentals deteriorate
- Approaches price target
- Change in strategic direction
- Attractive valuation vs growth rate
- Open-ended growth potential
- Fundamentals deteriorate
- Valuation excessive vs history
- Better alternatives
- Top overweight positions of each research analyst
- Price target achieved
- Fundamentals deteriorate
- Full valuation Strategic shift or adverse event impact
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The principal risks of investing in the Fund are stock market risk and style risk (growth investing risk and value investing risk). To the extent that the portfolio managers invest in foreign securities or debt securities, the Fund would be subject to foreign exposure risk, interest rate risk and credit risk. The Fund may invest in derivative instruments that carry derivative instruments risk.
Please read the prospectus carefully for a complete description of the fund. Before investing in a mutual fund, you should carefully consider the Investment objectives, risks and charges and expenses of the fund.
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