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ADVISER | Wells Fargo Funds Management, LLC
SUB-ADVISER | Phocas Financial Corporation
PORTFOLIO MANAGERS
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William Schaff, CFA
Managed the Large Company Value Fund since 2008
Mr. Schaff founded Phocas in June 2005 and is co-portfolio manager of the Phocas Real Estate Fund and Phocas Small Cap Value Fund. He has 20 years of investment experience and has managed institutional equity portfolios and mutual funds for Bay Isle Financial, LLC, Janus Capital Group, Berger LLC, and the Undiscovered Managers organization. Mr. Schaff holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, and is a member of the Security Analysts of San Francisco. Formerly, he served as Trustee and Chairperson of the Investment committee of Alameda County Employee's Retirement. Mr. Schaff holds a Masters degree in Engineering from the University of California, Davis.
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Steve Block, CFA
Managed the Large Company Value Fund since 2008
Mr. Block has 12 years of investment experience. Mr. Block was co-Portfolio Manager of Separate Account Large Cap Value Portfolios at Bay Isle Financial, LLC, and was a Senior Analyst at Janus. Mr. Block holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, and is a member of the Security Analysts of San Francisco. Mr. Block received his MBA from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business in accounting and finance. He received his B.A. degree from University of California, San Diego in Quantitative Economic Decision Science.
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OBJECTIVE | The Large Company Value Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation.
PRINCIPAL STRATEGIES | We invest principally in equity securities of large-capitalization companies, which we define as companies with market capitalizations of $3 billion or more. We may also invest in equity securities of foreign issuers through ADRs and similar investments.
Our investment process is highly aware of our sector allocations against our benchmark because we seek out performance through stock selection rather than overweighting or underweighting certain sectors. We begin our process by ranking approximately 5,000 stocks by market capitalization. Stocks that pass this screen for us will be in the top 20% of market capitalization. We then use our own predetermined criteria (e.g., debt as a portion of firms' total value; net profits as a portion of firms' total revenue; and price-to-earnings ratios) to refine the resulting investment candidates. From there, we perform quantitative financial statement analyses focusing on the strengths and trends in income statements, cash flow statements and balance sheets. Next, using proprietary modeling that determines the valuation of each stock relative to its peers in its respective business sector, we filter the remaining stocks. Our last filter consists of our qualitative assessments for each stock combining inputs that include our assessments of management teams, competitive strengths, business trends, and catalysts in companies' respective businesses. The resulting final portfolio consists of a diverse group of stocks, each of which is believed to have compelling valuations relative to its respective business sector peers and attractive metrics in terms of its appreciation potential.
In general, a stock may be sold if its valuation rises significantly within its respective industry peer group, if its position appreciates above 4% of the portfolio's total market value, if a company's management strategy deviates negatively from our expectations, or if a company's financial statements start to degrade materially.
RISKS | Stock
fund values fluctuate in response to the activities of individual companies
and general market and economic conditions. 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 foreign investment risk.
Consult the Fund's prospectus for additional information on these and other risks.
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2.79%
