Global Select
Highly concentrated global equity strategy focused on free cash flow generation and allocation
At a Glance
Epoch’s Global Select strategy pursues long-term capital appreciation by investing in a highly concentrated portfolio of global businesses. These companies are selected for their ability to not only generate free cash flow, but most importantly, allocate it toward creating shareholder value. Our bottom-up security selection and risk management process leads to a portfolio of 10 to 15 stocks, representing the highest-conviction ideas of our global investment team.
The Global Select Opportunity
- Distinctly Concentrated Global Equity Strategy -Epoch’s highest investment convictions
- Free Cash Flow Investment Focus -Companies selected based on ability to generate free cash flow and allocate it intelligently to create shareholder value
- Actively Managed –Co-Chief Investment Officers are the portfolio managers on the strategy
- Risk Management Integration in Investment Process-Minimize unintended risks and reduce volatility
Epoch’s Distinct Investment Philosophy and Approach
The bedrock of Epoch’s philosophy is that the growth and applications of free cash flow represent the best predictor of long-term shareholder return. As a result, our security selection process is focused on free-cash-flow metrics and capital allocation, as opposed to traditional accounting-based metrics such as price-to-book and price-to-earnings.
We look for a consistent, straightforward ability to generate free cash flow and to allocate it effectively among internal reinvestment opportunities, acquisitions, dividends, share repurchases and debt pay downs. An essential factor is the evaluation of each company’s management team to confirm their commitment to transparency and building shareholder value. The companies uncovered by this process have inherently less volatility due to their ability to generate cash flow.
The Global Select strategy looks across the concentrated Epoch Choice strategies (Global, Non-U.S. and U.S.) as primary sources for investment ideas in assembling the highly concentrated portfolio. Portfolio management is led by the Co-CIOs, representing the full intellectual property of Epoch’s entire global equity investment team, including
risk management.
The firm’s broader underlying equity strategies incorporate qualitative
and quantitative analysis to identify potential investments, taking into consideration factors that can lead to growing cash flow. Stocks are then subject to rigorous fundamental research. We develop an investment thesis as we assess the sources of the company’s long-term value creation and management’s ability to nurture it. We scrutinize management’s track record of allocating capital, looking for those with the discipline to use free cash flow to maximize return on investment, thereby creating shareholder value. Once a stock has been purchased, we regularly revisit our thesis and typically sell the stock if our price target is reached, our thesis changes or we identify another investment with a better risk-
reward profile.
While the portfolio is constructed from the bottom-up, decisions are made with consideration of the macro context. Epoch’s Investment Policy Group, composed of the Co-CIO’s and senior members of our investment leadership, provides insight and guidance on the global market environment and macroeconomic trends.
We analyze risk as part of the portfolio construction process to monitor portfolio volatility and better ensure the delivery of the strategy’s goals. A senior member of the Risk Management team is a co-portfolio manager on every strategy managed by Epoch, so portfolio leadership is aware of unintended biases and the effect individual securities may have on the portfolio. The portfolio is diversified across sectors and the sizes of individual positions are limited.