Equity

Special U.S. Small Cap Value Equity Strategy

The strategy aims to deliver long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in small-cap companies by using a disciplined, consistent valuation process that evaluates each stock’s upside reward relative to its downside risk.

Competitive advantages

CPA-based investment process

Through disciplined execution of its unique process, the team seeks to consistently outperform benchmarks and peers while maintaining a low-risk profile.

Rigorous bottom-up research

The bottom-up research process focuses on companies with durable competitive advantages, free-cash-flow generation, and balance sheet flexibility.

Disciplined valuation

The team appraises company reward/risk profiles, investing where this ratio is most favorable and not necessarily where upside is the greatest.

Investment approach

CPA-based approach helps find differentiated sources of alpha.

Accounting expertise and processes guide the team’s decision-making.

The team analyzes companies through a CPA lens to identify meaningful appreciation potential and limited loss of capital in its downside scenarios.

A differentiated approach to security selection can enable long-term capital appreciation.

The team uses a rigorous fundamental approach to identify companies with durable competitive advantages, strong free cash flow, and flexible balance sheets.

Portfolio construction allows security selection to drive compelling returns through a cycle.

Weightings are driven by the best reward/risk opportunities with a culture of risk awareness, reducing downside impacts and minimizing unintended style factor exposures. 

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Q2 Recap and Q3 Outlook

Bryant VanCronkhite, senior portfolio manager and co-head of the Special Global Equity team, discusses an eventful Q2 and what to watch in Q3.

Transcript

Katie Schmidt: Bryant, it was a wild second quarter. With that in mind, what is your biggest takeaway?

Bryant: It was indeed wild and the biggest takeaway is the macro is still in charge. Investors had to deal with tariffs being on and then paused. Dealing with the Fed (Federal Reserve) policy. Is there going to be a cut? Is there not going to be? Immigration policy and the macro drove the narrative for the entire quarter. That typically is reflected through style factor changes. In Q1, when there was fear, beta was the worst-performing factor. In Q2, beta was the best-performing factor. It was almost the only thing that mattered. So, the macro is still in charge is the biggest takeaway for Q1.

Katie: Great. With all of that behind us, what are we watching for as we enter the third quarter?

Bryant: Well, Q3 is the transition. Do companies now transition to more of a micro economic narrative? How are they going to talk to investors about the impact of tariffs? How are they going to deal with the potential slowdown from tariffs or the potential stimulation of the economy through the new reconciliation bill? And so, how are investors going to interpret the comments from companies, and how are they going to lay out future guidance is what we're looking for in Q3. And does the market then transition back to stock selection from style factors?

Katie: OK. As we enter into the second half of the year, what is one unintended but potential risk investors should be thinking about?

Bryant: Well, right now, it seems like most investors think the Fed is going to cut rates. We're pricing in two cuts coming up in the back half of this year. That probably is the base case assumption, assuming inflation stays stable and employment stays where it is. But there's a chance—a decent chance—that the new reconciliation bill proves very stimulative and GDP (gross domestic product) grows. There's a chance that through immigration policy and demand, unemployment levels go down, so labor is strong. And the Fed's in a situation where they have to raise interest rates. I don't think anyone is looking for that. So, it's not my base case, but investors should be more balanced in considering the Fed's next move isn't down but maybe up in interest rates.

Katie: Great. Those are great insights. Thanks, Bryant.

Bryant: It's a pleasure.

Composite performance

Average annual returns

Average annual returns

(as of 6/30/2025)
10/1/1993
1M
3M
YTD
1Y
3Y
5Y
10Y
Inception
Composite (Gross)
2.34
-0.52
-6.61
-0.92
7.49
12.26
8.07
11.35
Composite (Net)
2.25
-0.77
-7.08
-1.92
6.42
11.14
7.00
10.28
Benchmark
4.95
4.97
-3.16
5.54
7.45
12.47
6.72
9.03

Performance is historical and does not guarantee future results. For more information, please refer to the GIPS composite report found in the documents section.


Calendar year

Calendar year

2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
Composite (Gross)
7.76
20.08
-12.80
29.55
2.35
29.71
-12.68
12.40
30.95
-3.34
Composite (Net)
6.68
18.89
-13.68
28.29
1.32
28.45
-13.56
11.30
29.67
-4.31
Benchmark
8.05
14.65
-14.48
28.27
4.63
22.39
-12.86
7.84
31.74
-7.47

Performance is historical and does not guarantee future results. For more information, please refer to the GIPS composite report found in the documents section.


Our team
Meet the investment team

The team follows a fundamental approach of identifying companies with competitive advantages, sustainable free cash flow, and flexible balance sheets, helping deliver long-term capital appreciation.

View Team
James

James Tringas

Co-Head of Special Global Equity
Bryant

Bryant VanCronkhite

Co-Head of Special Global Equity

Key risks

Market risk: Security markets are volatile and may decline significantly in response to adverse issuer, regulatory, political, or economic developments with different sectors of the market and different security types reacting differently to such developments.

Equity securities risk: Equity securities fluctuate in value and price in response to factors specific to the issuer of the security, such as management performance, financial condition, and market demand for the issuer's products or services, as well as factors unrelated to the fundamental condition of the issuer, including general market, economic, and political conditions.

Small-cap securities risk: If a strategy invests in the securities of smaller-capitalization companies, these securities tend to be more volatile and less liquid than those of larger companies.

Foreign securities risk: If a strategy invests in the securities of non-U.S. issuers, these investments may be subject to lower liquidity, greater price volatility, and risks related to adverse political, regulatory, market, or economic developments and may be affected by changes in foreign currency exchange rates.

Investors should know that this strategy deployed may be subject to additional investment risks. For important information about the investment manager, please refer to Form ADV Part 2.

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