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Robert Turner, CFA
Christopher McHugh
William McVail, CFA
Turner Investment Partners
1205 Westlakes Drive
Suite 100
Berwyn, PA 19312
Bob Turner is the lead portfolio manager for the portion of the Equity Fund’s assets managed by Turner Investment Partners, Inc (“Turner Investments”). Turner has served as Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Turner Investments since 1990. He is the lead portfolio manager for Turner Investments’ Large Cap Growth and Global Growth investment strategies and is a member of the analyst team that covers the technology and telecommunications sector. Christopher K. McHugh, also a co-founder, is a Director and Executive Vice President and also serves as a senior portfolio manager at Turner Investments. He is the lead portfolio manager for Turner Investments’ Midcap Growth and Concentrated Global Growth investment strategies and is a member of the analyst team that covers the technology and telecommunications sector. Bill McVail, CFA, is a senior portfolio manager and the lead manager of Turner’s Small Cap Growth strategy and is also the co-manager of their Concentrated Growth and Micro Cap Growth strategies. Prior to joining Turner in he was a portfolio manager with PNC Equity Advisors. Turner Investments was founded in 1990 by Bob Turner, Mark Turner, and Chris McHugh. It is 100% employee owned, and approximately 60% of employees are owners (as of December 31, 2007). On September 18, 2007 Turner filed for an initial public offering (IPO), in which Turner is planning to offer a minority equity interest (up to one third) in the firm to the public. Turner says the IPO will provide employees with financial incentives to remain at the firm, while enabling senior members to monetize some of their equity. Turner expects the offering to be completed on the NASDAQ by the end of the year. After the IPO, Bob Turner, Mark Turner and Chris McHugh, with guidance from three newly appointed independent directors, will continue in substantially the same roles in the new public company and plan on leading the firm for a long time to come.
Turner Investments will manage approximately 10% of the assets of the Equity Fund. They take a team approach to investment management. Each member of the U.S. Growth Equity Investment Team has responsibility for the analysis of and purchase/sale recommendations for stocks within a specific market sector. Some team members have additional responsibility as lead or back-up managers for Turner’s various equity strategies (e.g., small-cap growth, mid-cap growth, large-cap growth). Turner believes the best investment decisions result from informed collaboration between the senior portfolio manager and a team of experienced analysts. Analysts are expected to be experts in their sectors and portfolio managers are relied upon to implement Turner’s investment discipline for their particular strategy.
Turner’s investment philosophy is that earnings expectations drive stock prices. Turner wants to buy companies whose growth is accelerating faster than the market consensus expects, and tries to avoid companies whose growth is slowing. The firm applies the same investment process to all of its equity portfolios, which combines quantitative, fundamental, and technical analysis. Turner's proprietary quantitative model ranks companies by sector and market capitalization based on numerous factors that Turner has determined to have the best predictive value in terms of future performance. Turner’s portfolio managers and sector analysts focus on the screen's top-ranked companies (or companies moving up in the screen) in each sector for their fundamental research. Fundamental analysis centers on identifying companies with accelerating revenue and earnings growth, large potential market opportunity, and expanding margins, among other growth characteristics that will lead to better-than-expected earnings. This process can involve meeting with company management, talking to industry experts and competitors, and attending trade shows/conferences in an effort to anticipate changes in the outlook for corporate earnings. Once a stock is targeted for purchase (or sale in the case of a current holding), technical analysis is used to identify attractive entry (or exit) price points, although Turner may sell quickly if a company misses earnings. Valuations are not a critical element of the buy or sell decision.
A current holding becomes a candidate for sale based upon evaluation of Turner’s three elements of investment criteria: model ranking, fundamental analysis, and technical analysis. If any one of these three elements turns negative, Turner carefully evaluates the fundamentals. Sell candidates are reviewed jointly by portfolio managers and sector analysts. However, the lead portfolio manager has final decision-making authority.
References to other mutual funds should not be deemed an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy shares of such funds.
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