Diversified exposure to emerging markets, seeking to capture value and growth
The Fund normally invests at least 80% of its total assets in equity securities of companies located in emerging (less developed) markets and other investments that are tied economically to emerging markets. Generally these investments include common stock, preferred and preference stock, American Depositary Receipts, European Depositary Receipts, Global Depositary Receipts, and exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) that invest in emerging markets securities.
Causeway uses a quantitative investment approach to purchase and sell investments for the Fund. Causeway’s proprietary computer model analyzes a variety of factors to assist in selecting securities. The model currently analyzes factors relating to valuation, earnings growth, technical indicators, macroeconomics, currency, countries and sectors.
- YTD Return*
- +6.19%
- Nav*
- $16.13, -0.23
- Inception
- March 30, 2007
- Cusip
- 149498206
- Benchmark
- MSCI Emerging Markets
- Minimum Investment
- $5,000
- Sales Charge
- None
- Net Expense Ratio
- 1.35%
- Gross Expense Ratio
- 1.41%
Portfolio managers
Joe Gubler, CFA
Mr. Gubler is a quantitative portfolio manager at Causeway. He joined the firm in 2005 and has been a portfolio manager since January 2014. In addition to managing quantitative portfolios and conducting alpha research, Mr. Gubler also leads the efforts to maintain and enhance Causeway’s proprietary risk models. He is also a member of the operating committee.
From 1999 to 2005, Mr. Gubler worked as a software engineer, with employers ranging from startups to established businesses such as Monster.com. From 1998 to 1999, Mr. Gubler worked as a staff scientist for News Corporation, conducting studies on the RF propagation of broadcast signals. While studying astrophysics at UC San Diego, Mr. Gubler worked as a graduate research assistant in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's stellar interferometry group.
Mr. Gubler earned a BS, cum laude, in physics from UC Irvine, an MS in physics from UC San Diego, and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management. Mr. Gubler is a CFA charterholder.
Arjun Jayaraman, PhD, CFA
Quantitative Portfolio Manager
Dr. Jayaraman is a director, quantitative portfolio manager and head of the quantitative research at Causeway and has been with the firm since January 2006. Dr. Jayaraman’s responsibilities and research include stock selection, asset allocation, risk model development, and portfolio construction.
From 2004 to 2005, Dr. Jayaraman was a portfolio manager at PanAgora Asset Management. He was the lead portfolio manager on the non-U.S. large cap core equity portfolios and was the co-portfolio manager on the global large cap core equity portfolios. From 2000 to 2004, Dr. Jayaraman managed the same portfolios at Putnam Investments, in addition to working closely with the teams that managed Putnam's traditional non-U.S. strategies. From 1998 to 2000, Dr. Jayaraman worked as a quantitative analyst at Harborview Trading Associates.
Dr. Jayaraman earned a PhD from New York University at the Stern School of Business and a BA in economics from Columbia University. Dr. Jayaraman is a CFA charterholder.
MacDuff Kuhnert, CFA
Mr. Kuhnert is a director and a quantitative portfolio manager at Causeway and has been with the firm since its inception in June 2001. Mr. Kuhnert’s responsibilities and research include stock selection, asset allocation, risk model development, and portfolio construction.
From 1996 to 2001, Mr. Kuhnert worked for the international team of the Hotchkis & Wiley division of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (HW-MLIM) as a quantitative research associate. During his tenure at HW-MLIM, Mr. Kuhnert created and developed advanced quantitative models used in the international value investment process. He also helped develop the team’s first equity risk model.
Mr. Kuhnert earned a BA in chemistry from Dartmouth College. He is a CFA charterholder, a member of the CFA Society of Los Angeles, and a member of the Chicago Quantitative Alliance.
Ryan Myers
Mr. Myers is a quantitative portfolio manager at Causeway. He joined the firm in June 2013 and has been a portfolio manager since January 2021. His responsibilities include alpha research, stock selection, and portfolio construction.
From 2010 to 2012, Mr. Myers served as chief investment officer of Iron Castle Asset Management, an investment partnership focused on mid-cap U.S. equities. From 2007 to 2008, Mr. Myers worked as an analyst at Canyon Partners, where he covered the cable, media, telecom and satellite sectors. From 2005 to 2007, Mr. Myers was an associate for Oaktree Capital Management in the distressed opportunities group. Mr. Myers began his professional career in 2003 as an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs in the technology, media and telecom group.
Mr. Myers earned a BA, magna cum laude, in economics from Harvard University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. Mr. Myers currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Yosemite Conservancy, an organization dedicated to supporting projects and programs that preserve Yosemite National Park and enrich the visitor experience.
Performance
The performance data quoted represents past performance. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed, may be worth less than their original cost and current performance may be lower than the performance quoted. Returns greater than one year are average annual total returns. Total returns assume reinvestment of dividends and capital gains distributions at net asset value when paid. All information is as of the date shown. Investment performance may reflect contractual fee waivers. In the absence of such fee waivers, total return would be reduced. The expense ratio for Investor Class shares is 1.41% and for Institutional Class shares is 1.16%.
Portfolio (as of December 31, 2020)
Asset Allocation
| Fund | |
|---|---|
| Stocks | 98.5% |
| Cash | 1.5% |
Fund Characteristics
| Fund | Benchmark | |
|---|---|---|
| No. of holdings | 118 | 1396 |
| Weighted avg. market cap (US $MM) | $150,908 | $124,202 |
| NTM price/earnings | 11.9 | 14.8 |
| Price/book value | 1.7 | 2.0 |
| NTM EPS revision (wtd. avg) | 20.8 | 13.6 |
| Net assets | $705,095,753 | - |
TOP 10 ACTIVE HOLDINGS
| Security | Country | Active weight* |
|---|---|---|
| China Construction Bank Corp. | China | 1.9% |
| Tencent Holdings Ltd. | China | 1.8% |
| Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | Taiwan | 1.4% |
| Baidu | China | 1.0% |
| Kia Motors Corp. | South Korea | 1.0% |
| Vale SA | Brazil | 0.9% |
| Hindalco Industries | India | 0.9% |
| POSCO | South Korea | 0.8% |
| Investimentos Itau | Brazil | 0.8% |
| Petróleo Brasileiro SA | Brazil | 0.8% |
A "weighted average” measures a characteristic by the market capitalization of each stock. Price/book value is the weighted average of the price/book values of all the stocks in a portfolio. The P/B value of a company is calculated by dividing the market price of its stock by the company’s per-share book value. The price/earnings ratio is the weighted average of the price/earnings ratios of the stocks in a portfolio. “Earnings-per-share” is the portion of a company’s profit allocated to each outstanding share of common stock. “Earnings-per-share year-over-year estimate growth (next 12 months)” is the average next-12-month earnings-per-share estimate from one year ago for an individual company compared with that estimate today; note that this calculation is done on a company-by-company basis and is aggregated through a weighted average based on the individual company’s weight in the corresponding index. Also note that this characteristic is supplied directly by MSCI.
*Active defined as Fund weight minus MSCI EM Index weight. Holdings are subject to change.
SECTOR WEIGHTS
| Sector | Fund | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Information Technology | 23.5% | 20.5% |
| Financials | 16.8% | 18.0% |
| Consumer Discretionary | 15.8% | 18.3% |
| Communication Services | 12.2% | 11.6% |
| Materials | 8.4% | 7.6% |
| Equity Funds | 5.8% | 0.0% |
| Energy | 4.5% | 5.0% |
| Consumer Staples | 4.3% | 5.9% |
| Health Care | 3.1% | 4.7% |
| Industrials | 2.4% | 4.3% |
| Real Estate | 1.4% | 2.1% |
| Utilities | 0.3% | 2.0% |
TOP 10 COUNTRIES
| Country | Fund | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| China | 35.8% | 39.1% |
| South Korea | 17.9% | 13.5% |
| Taiwan | 15.5% | 12.8% |
| India | 9.7% | 9.2% |
| Brazil | 6.5% | 5.1% |
| Russia | 4.0% | 3.0% |
| South Africa | 2.5% | 3.5% |
| Mexico | 1.8% | 1.7% |
| Malaysia | 1.0% | 1.5% |
| Saudi Arabia | 0.9% | 2.4% |
Regional Allocation
- Emerging Asia 81.8%
- Emerging Latin America 8.8%
- Emerging Europe, Middle East, Africa 7.9%
- Multi Region Emerging (ETF) 0.0%
Distributions
| Dividends | Short-term capital gains | Long-term capital gains | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $0.1787 | $0.0000 | $0.0000 |
| 2019 | $0.2362 | $0.0000 | $0.0000 |
| 2018 | $0.1777 | $0.0000 | $0.0000 |
| 2017 | $0.1937 | $0.0000 | $0.0000 |
| 2016 | $0.1353 | $0.0000 | $0.0000 |
| 2015 | $0.1434 | $0.0000 | $0.0000 |
| 2014 | $0.2425 | $0.0000 | $0.0000 |
| 2013 | $0.1100 | $0.0000 | $0.0000 |
| 2012 | $0.2768 | $0.0000 | $0.0000 |
| 2011 | $0.0972 | $0.0000 | $0.0000 |
| 2010 | $0.2560 | $0.0000 | $0.0000 |
| 2009 | $0.2866 | $0.0000 | $0.0000 |
| 2008 | $0.1506 | $0.0000 | $0.0000 |
| 2007 | $0.2097 | $0.4003 | $0.0000 |
Distributions are per share. Distribution amounts are based on gains and losses realized and income earned by the Fund through October 31 (or earlier under certain circumstances).
Documents
Fund information:
Forms:
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Commentary (As of December 31, 2020)
Highlights
Portfolio attribution
Causeway Emerging Markets Fund (“Fund”) outperformed the Index in December 2020. We use both bottom-up “stock-specific” and top-down factor categories to seek to forecast alpha for the stocks in the Fund’s investable universe. Our bottom-up price momentum and growth factors were positive indicators in December. Our valuation factor was a negative indicator during the month. In December, we added a new competitive strength bottom-up factor category to our alpha model. After extensive research, we found that an industry’s competitive landscape and a company’s position within it have been closely linked to changes in profitability and, ultimately, a stock’s return potential. These new alpha factors examine current levels and longer-term trends in a broad range of metrics relevant to competitive strength: margins, returns, competition, industry structure, market share, and balance sheet strength. Of our top-down factors, country and macroeconomic were positive indicators while sector and currency were negative.
Investment outlook
Earnings growth prospects have continued to improve for many EM companies. Earnings growth upgrades have exceeded downgrades in every sector except for real estate. In the Fund, we are underweight real estate stocks due to unfavorable earnings growth and price momentum characteristics. On the positive side, the information technology, materials, and communication services sectors have experienced the strongest net upgrades. Information technology companies have continued to benefit from increased technological adoption during the pandemic, strong demand related to 5G, and the latest iPhone upgrade cycle. Like information technology, communication services stocks have also benefitted from strong demand due to the pandemic and 5G expansion. Materials stocks have been buoyed by more stable commodity prices due to the resumption of global growth and US dollar weakness. Financial services companies, which faced growth challenges in 2020, experienced strong net upgrades. Analysts anticipate an earnings upswing for these companies as economic growth begins to normalize in 2021. While growth is one input in our multi-factor investment approach, we continue to emphasize value factors in our process. After underperforming in 2019, the MSCI Emerging Markets Value Index again lagged the MSCI Emerging Markets Growth Index in 2020. The MSCI Emerging Markets Value Index is trading near record low valuations based on both price-to-earnings and price-to-book value ratios. Looking forward, we believe that EM value stocks are poised to rebound given the valuation discount and the anticipated resumption of global growth in 2021.
The market commentary expresses the portfolio managers’ views as of the date of this report and should not be relied on as research or investment advice regarding any stock. These views and the Fund holdings and characteristics are subject to change. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Any securities identified and described in this report do not represent all of the securities purchased, sold or recommended for client accounts. The reader should not assume that an investment in the securities identified was or will be profitable. Diversification does not protect against market loss. Current and future holdings are subject to risk. The Fund may invest in derivatives, which are often more volatile than other investments and may magnify the Fund's gains or losses. Investing in ETFs is subject to the risks of the underlying funds. International and emerging markets investments may involve risk of capital loss from unfavorable fluctuation in currency values, from differences in generally accepted accounting principles or from social, economic or political instability in other nations. Emerging markets and smaller companies involve additional risks and higher volatility.