Davis Advisors manages equity funds using the "Davis Investment Discipline." Davis Advisors conducts extensive research to try to identify businesses that possess characteristics it believes foster the creation of long-term value, such as proven management, a durable franchise and business model, and sustainable competitive advantages. Davis Advisors aims to invest in such businesses when they are trading at a discount to their intrinsic worth. Davis Advisors emphasizes individual stock selection and believes that the ability to evaluate management is critical. Davis Advisors routinely visits management teams at their places of business in order to gain insight into the relative value of different businesses. Such research, however rigorous, involves predictions and forecasts that are inherently uncertain.

Over the years, Davis Advisors has developed a list of characteristics that it believes help companies to create shareholder value over the long term and manage risk.
Read more

Fiduciary Management Inc. ("FMI") was founded in 1980 and is an independent money management firm based in Milwaukee, Wis. The firm runs several public mutual funds including FMI Large Cap which is run by the same team that runs the Litman Gregory Masters Equity Fund portfolio.

FMI seeks to buy companies that have durable franchises (franchises that can survive difficult times) and whose common stock is trading below FMI's estimated intrinsic value of the company. Their investment process has always focused on evaluating three attributes of a company: the quality of the business model, the valuation, and the quality of management.
Read more

McGregor employs Harris' value investment philosophy and process. This investment philosophy is based upon the belief that, over time, a company's stock price converges with the company's intrinsic or true business value. By "true business value," Harris means an estimate of the price a knowledgeable buyer would pay to acquire the entire business. In making its investment decisions, Harris uses a "bottom-up" approach focused on individual companies, rather than focusing on specific economic factors or specific industries.

The chief consideration in the selection of stocks is the size of the discount of a company's stock price compared to the company's perceived true business value. In addition, Harris looks for companies with the following characteristics, although not all companies will have all of these attributes: free cash flows and intelligent investment of excess cash, earnings that are growing and are reasonably predictable, and a high level of management ownership in the company.
Read more

Approximately 15% of the Equity Fund's assets are managed by Nygren, who employs Harris' value investment philosophy and process. This investment philosophy is based upon the belief that, over time, a company's stock price converges with the company's intrinsic or true business value. By "true business value," Harris means an estimate of the price a knowledgeable buyer would pay to acquire the entire business. In making its investment decisions, Harris uses a "bottom-up" approach focused on individual companies, rather than focusing on specific economic factors or specific industries.

The chief consideration in the selection of stocks is the size of the discount of a company's stock price compared to the company's perceived true business value.
Read more

Approximately 10% of the Equity fund's assets are managed by Moore. Moore's investment philosophy is founded on the belief that investing in leading business franchises selling at a discount to fair value has the potential to generate excess returns over time. Moore seeks to generate strong risk-adjusted returns by investing in leading and growing businesses that, due to transitory reasons, are temporarily under-earning and, consequently, are undervalued in the marketplace. Thus, Moore attempts to capitalize on investors' shorter-term fears or overreactions to provide investment opportunities.

To achieve his goal, Moore attempts to minimize uncertainty and increase the odds of a favorable investment outcome.
Read more

The team believes that over longer periods of time, stock prices track earnings growth. The investment goal is to identify companies that can sustain above-average earnings growth relative to the broader market, typically over the next three to five years. The team believes great investment ideas are rare and runs a concentrated portfolio of high-quality, seasoned, growing businesses across an array of attractive and growing business spaces. Grassroots research—bottom-up and company focused—is the cornerstone of the team's investment process. All research analyses and conclusions are internally generated using a variety of internal and external data sources.

The team seeks to identify the potential leaders in attractive business spaces. To identify such companies, the team evaluates six key factors:
Read more

Weiss invests in stocks of small- and mid-sized companies that are undervalued either because they are not broadly recognized, are in transition, or are out of favor based on short-term factors. Weiss also has the flexibility to invest in the stocks of larger companies if in his opinion they offer the potential for better returns. In seeking attractively valued companies, Weiss focuses on companies with above-average growth potential that also exhibit some or all of the following: low institutional investor ownership and low analyst coverage, high-quality management, sustainable competitive advantage.

Weiss evaluates the degree of undervaluation relative to his estimate of each company's private market value. This private market value approach is based on an assessment of what a private buyer would be willing to pay for the future cash flow stream of the target company. Based on his experience, Weiss believes that, except for technology and other high-growth stocks, most stocks trade at between 50% and 80% of the private market value.
Read more