ASTPX — Virtus NFJ Global Sustainability Fund

ASTPX Fund Overview

ASTPX — Virtus NFJ Global Sustainability Fund is a US mutual fund managed by Virtus Strategy Trust, categorised as Global (incl. US) Mid Cap Blend / Core Thematic Equity. ABC INVEST provides holdings, performance, costs, cashflows, risk data, prospectus documents and SEC filings, sourced from SEC filings.

• Type: US mutual fund
• Manager: Virtus Strategy Trust
• Category: Global (incl. US) Mid Cap Blend / Core Thematic Equity
• Assets under management: $10.33M
• 1-year return: 0.8%
• Ticker: ASTPX
• SEC CIK: 0001423227
• SEC series ID: S000047250
• Share class ID: C000148058

ASTPX Investment Objective and Strategy

Virtus NFJ Global Sustainability Fund describes its objective and strategy as follows, from its latest prospectus filed with the SEC by Virtus Strategy Trust.

Investment objective

The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation.

Principal investment strategy

The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by creating a portfolio of global equities with a focus on companies that the portfolio managers believe exhibit strong records with respect to environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors. The Fund normally invests primarily in equity securities of both U.S. and non-U.S. companies, including emerging market securities. Under normal market conditions, the Fund will invest at least 40% of its assets in non-U.S. securities. Notwithstanding the previous sentence, if the weighting of non-U.S. securities in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index drops below 45%, the Fund may invest a lower amount in non-U.S. securities, which will normally be such that the minimum level for non-U.S. securities will be 5% below the weighting of non-U.S.

securities in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index as of the most recently published month-end composition. As of December 31, 2017, the capitalization weighting of non-U.S. securities in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index was approximately 67.11%. The Fund is not managed with reference to the Down Jones Sustainability World Index, and its primary performance benchmark is the MSCI ACWI. The portfolio managers intend to diversify the Funds investments across geographic regions and economic sectors. The Fund intends, but is not required, to hold stocks that are not included in the benchmark index. The Fund may invest in issuers of any size market capitalization, including smaller capitalization companies. The Fund may achieve its exposure to non-U.S. securities either directly or through depository receipts such as American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) or Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs).

The portfolio managers begin with an investment universe comprised of more than 3,000 equity securities and assess individual securities using a disciplined investment process that integrates a focus on the ESG records of the issuers of such securities with proprietary fundamental, company-specific research and quantitative analysis. The portfolio managers use a proprietary ESG model to evaluate and rate the securities in the investment universe. The portfolio managers believe that there are long-term benefits in an investment philosophy that attaches material weight to certain issues that receive less attention from traditional investment analysis, such as the environment, workplace relations, human rights, community relations, product safety and impact, and corporate governance and business ethics.

The portfolio managers also believe that investing in companies with strong records for managing ESG risks can generate long-term competitive financial returns and positive societal impact and that companies that do not exhibit strong records with respect to ESG factors may be at a greater long-term risk of negative economic consequences. With respect to ESG factors, the portfolio managers will aim to invest the majority of the Funds portfolio in stocks that they rate as best-in-class ( i.e. , top 30%), while avoiding stocks rated worst-in-class ( i.e. , bottom 30%). The portfolio managers then analyze specific companies for possible investment through a disciplined, fundamental, bottom up-research process and quantitative analysis. In identifying potential investments, the portfolio managers ordinarily look for companies that exhibit some or all of the following characteristics: a strong record with respect to ESG factors; a demonstrated record of ESG risk management; long-term competitive advantage; a strong balance sheet; high barriers to entry in the companys industry or area of business; experienced and respected management; and a strong record of capital discipline.

The portfolio managers then seek to identify quality companies that exhibit growth characteristics (companies that the portfolio managers believe are expected to grow returns over and above the cost of capital). The portfolio managers construct the Funds portfolio with the expectation that stock-specific risk will drive the Funds returns over a complete market cycle and may reallocate the portfolios holdings in attempting to mitigate other risk factors, such as currency risk, country/regional risk, investment style risk, and sector risk, among others. Under normal circumstances, the portfolio managers typically select approximately 40 to 60 stocks for the Fund. In addition to common stocks and other equity securities (such as preferred stocks, convertible securities and warrants) and equity-related instruments, the Fund may invest in securities issued in initial public offerings (IPOs).

The Fund may also utilize foreign currency exchange contracts, options, stock index futures contracts, warrants and other derivative instruments. Although the Fund did not invest significantly in derivative instruments during its most recent fiscal year, it may do so at any time.

ASTPX Holdings

Top 10 holdings of Virtus NFJ Global Sustainability Fund by percentage of net assets, from the fund's latest SEC N-PORT filing.

View all ASTPX holdings

ASTPX Portfolio Allocation

Asset-class allocation of Virtus NFJ Global Sustainability Fund by percentage of net assets, from the latest SEC N-PORT filing.

ASTPX Performance

Total returns for ASTPX (as of 2026-10-01), from SEC filings.

ASTPX Risk Information

Risk metrics for ASTPX, derived from monthly returns in SEC filings.

• 1-year volatility (annualised): 20.0%

ASTPX Costs and Fees

ASTPX costs about $79 per $10,000 invested per year in fund expenses.

• Net expense ratio: 0.79%
• Gross expense ratio: 1.20%
• Portfolio turnover: 114%
• Brokerage commissions: 9.76 bps of average net assets (SEC N-CEN)

ASTPX Cashflows

Over the 12 months to 2024-09, Virtus NFJ Global Sustainability Fund had net outflows of $32.74M, from monthly SEC N-PORT filings.

ASTPX Debt Constituents

No individual debt constituents are reported in Virtus NFJ Global Sustainability Fund's latest SEC N-PORT filing.

ASTPX Prospectus and SEC Filings

Official Virtus NFJ Global Sustainability Fund filings on SEC EDGAR — prospectus, portfolio holdings and annual reports.

• Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2024-01-25
• Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2023-01-26
• Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2022-01-28
• Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2024-11-22
• Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2024-08-26
• Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2024-05-23
• Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2024-12-13
• Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2023-12-13

Related Funds

Other Global (incl. US) Mid Cap Blend / Core Thematic Equity funds tracked on ABC INVEST:

• Calvert Global Water Fund (CFWAX)
• Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI)
• Fidelity Water Sustainability Fund (FLOWX)
• Global Sustainable Listed Infrastructure Fund (PGSLX)
• Sarmaya Thematic ETF (LENS)

Data Sources

ABC INVEST compiles this page from public filings made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through EDGAR: portfolio holdings and monthly cashflows from Form N-PORT, expenses and returns from fund prospectuses (Form 485BPOS) and the SEC DERA Risk/Return Summary data sets, annual data from Form N-CEN, and shareholder reports from Form N-CSR.