AGF U.S. Large Cap Growth Equity Strategy
Approach
Fundamental, bottom up.
Cap
Large Cap
Benchmark
S&P 500 Index
Inception Date
June 1957
Key Reasons to Invest
1Distinct Investment Philosophy
Concentrated, high-conviction approach to investing in leading companies throughout changing market cycles.
2Focus on Innovation and Market Leaders
Ability to invest in all sectors that exhibit market leadership and innovation resulting in a portfolio of “best ideas” that is differentiated from the broad market.
3Experienced Team
Track record of managing growth-oriented strategies through a variety of market environments.
Overview
Philosophy
The team’s objective is to capture leading growth companies in every investment cycle. Every stock the team holds is a buy each day, or it is sold.
The team uses an opportunistic bottom-up approach with front-end quantitative screens that seek to identify high-quality growth companies that aim to successfully generate sustainable above-average growth for revenues, earnings, and cash flow.
Investment Process
We employ a bottom-up stock selection process based on in-depth fundamental research. Our process begins with an investment universe of over 1900 securities consisting of U.S. companies with a market capitalization greater than US$2 billion.
Idea generation may involve, but is not limited to, a quantitative screen. A good investment idea for the portfolio can also originate from management meetings (e.g. asking management teams who are their suppliers or competitors), attending industry conferences, or from sell-side generated research. A good idea, however, must screen well on our proprietary quantitative framework which prioritizes revenue growth, but also examines other growth metrics such as earnings growth, positive revisions, and rising cash flow. Growth measures are viewed from both an absolute and relative basis, as well as a historical perspective in conjunction with an examination of sustainability into the foreseeable future.
Research models and external databases are utilized to determine these characteristics for each company. The qualitative analysis continues to narrow the investable universe to 200+ companies through on-going, targeted research. This analysis identifies strong companies with leading product or service innovations, strong management and industry leaders in attractive markets. Company valuations are constantly monitored on both an absolute and relative basis compared to a peer group and the market, and valuation is also considered on a relative basis considering the long-term growth expectations. The rigorous bottom-up research process aims to ensure each candidate for inclusion exhibits strong fundamentals.
The catalyst identification process further reduces the universe to 100+ companies, singling out potential purchase candidates. Factors scrutinized at this stage include market share trends, research and development (R&D), free cash flow generation and profitability. These factors are included in evaluating a company's ability to grow at above average rates. Innovation and the allocation of spending to R&D are closely monitored, as is the productivity of this spending. Our resulting high-conviction portfolio consists of 30-50 companies that exhibit strong growth characteristics.
Investment Process
- Market cap of US$2 billion and above 1,900+ stocks
-
1. Idea Generation
- Management meetings
- Conferences
- Quantitative Screens
- Publications
- Sell-side research
- Revenue growth
- Earnings growth
- Positive revisions
- Rising cash flow
- 350+ stocks
-
2. Fundamental Analysis
- New products or services
- R&D productivity
- Macro developments
- Corporate announcements
- ESG analysis
- 200+ stocks
-
3. Purchase Candidate List
- Attractive valuation
- Relative strength
- 100+ stocks
- Market leaders
- High conviction
- Innovation
- Thematic beneficiaries
- 30 - 50 names
Investment Team
Mike Archibald serves as a portfolio manager of AGF Investments' U.S., Global and Canadian Growth Equity strategies. He uses a bottom-up investment approach that leverages quantitative, fundamental and technical inputs to identify companies with strong earnings growth and momentum, high-quality management and solid free cash flow.
Mike joined AGF Investments as an Associate Portfolio Manager in 2015, focusing on research, analysis and selection of North American equities. Before joining AGF Investments, Mike was a Portfolio Manager with Aurion Capital Management Inc. where he was responsible for research, security selection and portfolio management of equity investments for pension plan clients. Prior to that, he was with Computerized Portfolio Management Services (CPMS), an equity research firm providing fundamental and quantitative investment data to institutional and retail money managers.
Mike holds an Honours Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University and is also a CFA®, CMT and CAIA charterholder.
Auritro Kundu serves as a portfolio manager of AGF Investments' U.S., Global and Canadian Growth Equity strategies. A staunch believer that innovation can be found in every industry, his investment philosophy is rooted in identifying innovative companies who boast strong earnings growth, free cash flow and return on equity.
Auritro joined AGF Investments in 2015 and previously served as an Analyst responsible for fundamental research and analysis of the Information Technology and Consumer Discretionary sectors. Prior to joining AGF Investments, he was an Equity Research Associate Analyst at National Bank Financial, where he was responsible for coverage of Canadian Information Technology equipment companies. Prior to that, he worked at Rogers Communications in corporate development and at Research in Motion in product management.
Auritro has a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto and earned an MBA from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
Portfolio Manager under AGF Investments Inc. and AGF Investments America Inc.
Abhishek Ashok
M.A., MFE, CFA®
Rasib Bhanji
MBA, CFA®
Ling Han
M.Sc., MBA, CFA®
Grace Huang
MBA, CFA®
Marko Kais
CFA®
John Kratochwil
MBA, P.Eng.
Henry Kwok
MBA
Lazar Naiker
Pulkit Sabharwal
MBA
Wai Tong
MBA, P.Eng., CFA®
Wyeth Wright
CFA®
Lillian Zhang
MBA, CFA®
Wai Tong
MBA, P.Eng., CFA®
Izabela Siwoski Uliana
LLB (hons), CIM
The AGF Equity Analyst Team consists of individuals from AGF Investments Inc. Personnel of AGF Investment Inc., an affiliated adviser located in Canada that is not registered with the SEC, provide research services to clients of AGF Investments America Inc through an Affiliate Resource Arrangements.
CFA® and Chartered Financial Analyst® are registered trademarks owned by CFA Institute.