The Money Reporter’s ‘Mutual Fund Planning Guide’ highlights the 40 best Canadian mutual funds for long-term investment. The Guide has just added a new fund to its list of seven recommended funds that invest in multi country international stocks.
The Money Reporter has added Trimark Global Endeavour Fund (Series A fund codes: AIM1593(FE), AIM1591(DSC), AIM1595(LL)) to its list of ‘The Top 40: Canada’s Best Mutual Funds’ in its ‘Mutual Fund Planning Guide’.
Trimark Global Endeavour seeks long-term capital growth by investing mostly in mid-capitalization equities from anywhere in the world. To achieve this objective, the fund’s management team applies a blended growth/value, bottom-up fundamental investment approach to analyze the quality and value of individual companies to determine whether to invest in them.
The team looks for companies whose competitive advantages provide opportunities for long-term capital growth, that have strong management and balance sheets, and that it believes are attractively priced in relation to their intrinsic value.
This top international fund’s geographic breakdown includes: the U.S., 35.8 per cent; other countries, 12.6 per cent; U.K., 10.4 per cent; South Korea, 9.4 per cent; Ireland, 7.9 per cent; cash, 6.4 per cent; South Africa, 6.2 per cent; Australia, 4.4 per cent; United Arab Emirates, 3.9 per cent; and Canada, 3.1 per cent.
The global fund’s top holdings are Ross Stores (U.S.: consumer discretionary), 7.7 per cent; Hyundai Mobis Co. (South Korea: consumer discretionary), 5.7 per cent; Anthem (U.S.: health care), 5.1 per cent; Microsoft (U.S.: technology), 4.0 per cent; Aramex PJSC (United Arab Emirates: industrials), 3.9 per cent; S&P Global (U.S.: financials), 3.9 per cent; Accenture PLC (U.K.: industrials), 3.4 per cent; and Zimmer Biomet Holdings (U.S.: health care), 3.0 per cent.
The fund’s industry breakdown is as follows: consumer discretionary, 33.4 per cent; industrials, 20.8 per cent; financials, 17.5 per cent; technology, 11.0 per cent; health care, 8.1 per cent; consumer staples, 1.8 per cent; and energy, 1.0 per cent.
Global Endeavour was launched in 1993. Since then, its compound annual growth rate is 7.7 per cent. The fund has performed in the top quartile of the global equity funds category in each of the past three-, five- and 10-year periods.
And on a year-by-year basis over the 10 years ended Dec. 31, 2015, it performed in the top half of the category in eight of those years — a very good record.
The fund’s most senior manager, Jeff Hyrich, has been with the fund since 2002, so he can take a lot of credit for the fund’s consistently strong performance over the past decade or so.
The fund has a management expense ratio of 2.56 per cent. That’s slightly below the median ratio for the category, which is 2.59 per cent.
These past few years, the fund’s management team has remained cautious on the market’s high overall valuations. But it continues to wait for quality businesses to trade at lower valuations, while not overpaying for growth. That’s because it believes that owning quality companies with strong balance sheets at low valuations should generate strong returns over the long term.
Trimark Global Endeavour is a buy if you want strong long-term growth from a mid-cap global stock fund as part of a larger, diversified portfolio, and you’re comfortable with average to higher investment risk.
Money Reporter, MPL Communications Inc.
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Money Reporter •10/18/16 •