Fund overview
Quality at a compelling price
The Emerging Markets Equity Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation through equities tied economically to emerging market countries.

Quality companies create intrinsic value and preserve value in adversity.
 
Key differentiators

  • Is a disciplined, process-driven strategy with a track record of more than 25 years
  • Employs a sequential approach—quality first, then valuation—that provides a clear framework for investing in quality companies
  • Seeks to generate  shareholder value via stock selection with a focus on protecting capital and participating in the long-term growth of emerging markets

Performance

Average annual returns Add Minus

Average annual returns

(as of 3/31/2024)
9/6/1994
1M
3M
YTD
1Y
3Y
5Y
10Y
Inception
Fund
2.40
1.11
1.11
5.23
-8.48
1.49
2.68
5.93
Benchmark
2.48
2.37
2.37
8.15
-5.05
2.22
2.95
-
Morningstar
2.23
3.04
3.04
9.83
-4.94
3.00
2.89
-
Expenses (as of 3/1/2024)
Gross Expense Ratio
1.15 %
Net Expense Ratio
1.01 %

One-month, three-month and year-to-date returns are not annualized.

Figures quoted represent past performance, which is no guarantee of future results, and do not reflect taxes that a shareholder may pay on an investment in a fund. Investment return, principal value, and yields of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted and assumes the reinvestment of dividends and capital gains. 

Net asset value (NAV) is the value of one share of the fund excluding any sales charges.

R6 Class shares are sold without a front-end sales charge or contingent deferred sales charge.

The manager has contractually committed, through 2/28/2025, to waive fees and/or reimburse expenses to the extent necessary to cap the fund's total annual fund operating expenses after fee waivers at 1.01%. Brokerage commissions, stamp duty fees, interest, taxes, acquired fund fees and expenses (if any), and extraordinary expenses are excluded from the expense cap. Prior to or after the commitment expiration date, the cap may be increased or the commitment to maintain the cap may be terminated only with the approval of the Board of Trustees. Without this cap, the fund's returns would have been lower. The expense ratio paid by an investor is the net expense ratio (the total annual fund operating expenses after fee waivers) as stated in the prospectus.

Calendar year Add Minus

Calendar year

(as of 12/31/2023)
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
Fund
8.80
-19.38
-11.76
21.35
28.14
-15.74
34.96
12.10
-12.96
-4.73
Benchmark
9.83
-20.09
-2.54
18.31
18.42
-14.57
37.28
11.19
-14.92
-2.19
Morningstar
12.32
-20.86
0.38
17.90
19.25
-16.07
34.17
8.47
-13.79
-3.01
Cumulative Add Minus

Cumulative

(as of 3/31/2024)

This chart shows the value of a hypothetical $10,000 investment in the fund over the specified time period up to 10 years or since its inception (for funds lacking 10-year records). The result is compared with benchmarks, which may include a broad-based market index and a peer group average or index. Market indexes do not include expenses, which are deducted from fund returns as well as mutual fund averages and indexes.

Does not include sales charges and assumes reinvestment of dividends and capital gains. If sales charges were included, returns would be lower.

Performance and volatility metrics Add Minus

Performance and volatility metrics

(as of 3/31/2024)
3 Year 5 Year 10 Year
Alpha -3.58 -0.61 -1.62
Beta 1.00 1.02 0.99
Excess Return -3.43 -0.73 -0.27
Information Ratio -0.80 -0.16 -0.07
Sharpe Ratio -0.62 -0.03 0.07
R2 0.94 0.95 0.95
Tracking Error 4.29 4.49 4.03
Standard Deviation 17.96 19.70 17.41
Upside Market Capture Ratio 92.97 103.12 97.92
Downside Market Capture Ratio 106.05 102.33 100.09
Morningstar ratings and rankings Add Minus

Morningstar ratings and rankings

(as of 3/31/2024)
Overall
Diversified Emerging Mkts (Out of 721 funds)
Three Year
85th percentile (562 out of 721)
Five Year
75th percentile (466 out of 657)
Ten Year
56th percentile (228 out of 425)

The Overall Morningstar Rating for a fund is derived from a weighted-average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five- and ten-year (if applicable) ratings.

Morningstar rankings represent a fund's total return rank relative to all funds that have the same category. The percentile ranking is based on the fund's total return percentile rank relative to all funds that have the same category for the same time period. The highest (most favorable) percentile rank is 1% and the lowest (least favorable) percentile rank is 100%. Morningstar rankings do not include the effect of sales charges. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Prices and distributions

Historical prices

YTD high $25.95 4/9/2024
YTD low $23.62 1/17/2024
52-week high $26.19 7/31/2023
52-week low $22.73 10/26/2023
2023 high $26.19 7/31/2023
2023 low $22.73 10/26/2023
Best quarterly return 23.85% 6/30/2020
Worst quarterly return -23.70% 3/31/2020
Best annual return 34.96% 12/31/2017
Worst annual return -19.38% 12/31/2022

Distribution summary

Dividends Annually
Capital gains Annually

Distribution history

Distribution history Type Per share amount Re investment price
2023-12-20 Dividend $0.34282 $24.54
2022-12-21 Dividend $0.30367 $23.57
2021-12-23 Dividend $0.22331 $29.36
2020-12-21 Dividend $0.13816 $32.88
2019-12-23 Dividend $0.29782 $27.94
2018-12-27 Dividend $0.19975 $21.90
2017-12-28 Dividend $0.20754 $26.32
2016-12-29 Dividend $0.22326 $19.70
2015-12-30 Dividend $0.23412 $17.82
2014-12-30 Dividend $0.25896 $20.70
2013-12-30 Dividend $0.09682 $21.97
Download CSV

Composition

Portfolio statistics Add Minus

Portfolio statistics

(as of 3/31/2024)
Fund Benchmark
Number of Holdings 1376
Median Market Cap 12.35 6.69
Dividend Yield 2.52 2.81
PE Ratio 18.71 16.26
PB Ratio 1.88 1.92
EPS Growth 21.70 17.97
Return on Equity 13.62 15.23
Portfolio Turnover 9.26 -

Equity Style Box

(as of 3/31/2024) Overview chart

Placement within the Morningstar Equity Style Box is based on two variables: relative median market capitalization and relative price valuations (price/book and price/earnings) of the fund’s portfolio holdings. These numbers are drawn from the fund’s portfolio holdings figures most recently entered into Morningstar’s database and the corresponding market conditions. The Ownership Zone is represented by a shaded area surrounding the centroid. This zone encompasses 75% of a portfolio’s holdings on an asset-weighted basis and is designed to be a visual measure of how wide-ranging the portfolio is.

Top 10 holdings Add Minus

Top 10 holdings

(as of 3/31/2024)
Security
Fund
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR
10.09%
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
6.70%
Reliance Industries Limited GDR 144A
4.46%
Tencent Holdings Ltd.
3.96%
Fomento Economico Mexicano SAB de CV ADR Class B
2.80%
Alibaba Group Holding Limited Sponsored ADR
2.46%
HDFC Bank Limited ADR
2.32%
WH Group Ltd. (HK)
2.05%
Bharti Airtel Limited
1.89%
ITC Limited
1.82%
Top 10 represents 38.55% of total net assets
Sector allocation Add Minus

Sector Allocation

(as of 3/31/2024)
Type
Fund
Benchmark
Information technology
23.54% 23.73%
Consumer staples
17.67% 5.63%
Communication services
16.43% 8.62%
Financials
13.89% 22.35%
Consumer discretionary
10.79% 12.42%
Energy
5.86% 5.32%
Materials
4.03% 7.20%
Industrials
3.91% 6.96%
Health care
2.07% 3.47%
Real estate
1.81% 1.52%
Utilities
0.00% 2.78%
Other
0.00% -

Sector diversification is a breakdown of the fund's investments based on the S&P Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS), a breakdown of market sectors used by Standard & Poor's. Sector weights are subject to change and may have changed since the date specified. Percent total may not add to 100% due to rounding.

Geographic allocation Add Minus

Geographic allocation

(as of 3/31/2024)
Type
Fund
China & Hong Kong
22.92%
Taiwan
15.56%
South Korea
15.41%
India
15.17%
Mexico
9.13%
Brazil
5.89%
Indonesia
3.52%
South Africa
2.92%
Thailand
2.38%
Chile
2.31%

Geographic allocation is subject to change and may have changed since the date specified. Percent total may not add to 100% due to rounding.

Documents

Literature Details Date
Fact Sheet C, A, R6, Institutional, Administrator 3/31/2024 Download Download
Regulatory Document Details Date
Annual Report C, A, R6, Institutional, Administrator 10/31/2023 Download Download
Full Prospectus R6 3/1/2024 Download Download
Quarterly Holdings C, A, R6, Institutional, Administrator 7/31/2023 Download Download
Quarterly Holdings C, A, R6, Institutional, Administrator 1/31/2024 Download Download
Semi-annual Report C, A, R6, Institutional, Administrator 4/30/2023 Download Download
Statement of Additional Information C, A, R6, Institutional, Administrator 3/1/2024 Download Download
Summary Prospectus R6 3/1/2024 Download Download
Our team
Meet the investment team

To provide clients high-quality risk-adjusted returns, the team uses a strict sequential process to identify quality companies with the potential to create intrinsic value.

Contact Us

We look forward to helping you with your investment needs

 

Stock values fluctuate in response to the activities of individual companies and general market and economic conditions. Foreign investments are especially volatile and can rise or fall dramatically due to differences in the political and economic conditions of the host country. These risks are generally intensified in emerging markets. The use of derivatives may reduce returns and/or increase volatility. Certain investment strategies tend to increase the total risk of an investment (relative to the broader market). This fund is exposed to smaller-company securities risk. Consult the fund's prospectus for additional information on these and other risks.

  
The Morningstar Rating™ for funds, or star rating, is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar risk-adjusted return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product’s monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The Morningstar Rating does not include any adjustment for sales loads. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its 3-, 5-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% 3-year rating for 36–59 months of total returns, 60% 5-year rating/40% 3-year rating for 60–119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% 5-year rating/20% 3-year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent 3-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Some of Morningstar’s proprietary calculations, including the Morningstar Rating™, are not customarily calculated based on adjusted historical returns. However, for new share classes/channels, Morningstar may calculate an extended-performance Morningstar Rating. The extended performance is calculated by adjusting the historical total returns of the oldest share class of a fund to reflect the fee structure of the younger share class/channel, attaching this data to the younger share class’s performance record, and then compounding the adjusted plus actual monthly returns into the extended-performance Morningstar risk-adjusted return for the 3-, 5-, and 10-year time periods. The Morningstar risk-adjusted returns are used to determine the extended-performance Morningstar Rating. The extended-performance Morningstar Rating for this fund does not affect the retail fund data published by Morningstar, as the bell curve distribution on which the ratings are based includes only funds with actual returns. The Overall Morningstar Rating for multi-share funds is based on actual performance only or extended performance only. Once the share class turns three years old, the Overall Morningstar Rating will be based on actual ratings only. The Overall Morningstar Rating for multi-share variable annuities is based on a weighted average of any ratings that are available.

While the inclusion of pre-inception data in the form of extended performance can provide valuable insight into the probable long-term behavior of newer share classes of a fund, investors should be aware that an adjusted historical return can provide only an approximation of that behavior. For example, the fee structures of a retail share class will vary from that of an institutional share class, as retail shares tend to have higher operating expenses and sales charges. These adjusted historical returns are not actual returns. The underlying investments in the share classes used to calculate the pre-performance string likely will vary from the underlying investments held in the fund after inception. Calculation methodologies used by Morningstar may differ from those applied by other entities, including the fund itself.

© 2024 Morningstar. All rights reserved. The information contained herein is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; may not be copied or distributed; and is not warranted to be accurate, complete, or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Performance for the fund or the class shown may reflect a predecessor fund's or class' performance and may be adjusted to reflect the fund's or class' expenses as applicable.