AXCBX — AllianzGI Best Styles International Equity Fund

AXCBX Fund Overview

AXCBX — AllianzGI Best Styles International Equity Fund is a US mutual fund managed by Virtus Strategy Trust, categorised as Emerging Markets Real Estate. 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: Emerging Markets Real Estate
• Assets under management: $24.79M
• Ticker: AXCBX
• SEC CIK: 0001423227
• SEC series ID: S000047249
• Share class ID: C000169082

AXCBX Investment Objective and Strategy

AllianzGI Best Styles International Equity 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 diversified portfolio of international equities. The Fund will normally invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus borrowings made for investment purposes) in equity securities and equity-related instruments. The Fund ordinarily allocates its investments among a number of countries ( i.e. , at least three), including those in the MSCI EAFE Index, and normally invests at least 80% of its assets in non-U.S. securities. The Fund normally focuses its non-U.S. investments in developed countries but may also invest in emerging markets securities. The portfolio managers intend to diversify the Funds investments across geographic regions and economic sectors. The Fund may invest in issuers of any size market capitalization, including smaller capitalization companies.

The Funds investment strategy centers on the portfolio managers belief that individual investment styles (as described below) carry long-term risk premiums that are largely independent of the current economic or market environment and that can be captured using a disciplined investment approach. The investment process begins with a broad investment universe containing at least 1,500 equity securities. Next, individual securities are evaluated based on quantitative investment style research and may also be evaluated by the Managers fundamental research team. Investment style research categorizes companies through a proprietary quantitative model that scores each company along several investment style categories, described below (Value, Earnings Change, Price Momentum, Growth, and Quality). Fundamental research evaluates each company identified as an investment candidate through the quantitative investment style research process using a wide range of company-specific information gathered by in-house analysts and external sources.

In selecting individual stocks with attractive fundamental characteristics, the portfolio managers seek to diversify the mix of investment styles represented across the whole portfolio ( i.e. , by making sure high-scoring issuers from all of the investment styles are among the final holdings). The portfolio managers attempt to control for risk factors (such as over- and under-weights relative to the MSCI EAFE Index and the portfolios sensitivity to broader market movements (or beta)). The portfolio is managed with reference to the MSCI EAFE Index as to both risk and return and the portfolio manager intends, under normal circumstances, to have at least 200 equity securities in the Funds portfolio. The Fund may and intends to have significant holdings in stocks that are not included in the MSCI EAFE Index.

The Value investment style selects equity securities that the portfolio managers believe have attractive valuations based on metrics including dividend yield and price-to-earnings, price-to-cash flow and price-to-book ratios, as compared to other equity securities in the investable universe. The Earnings Change investment style is designed to capture shorter-term, trend-following investment opportunities and generally selects equity securities with positive earnings revisions, announcements or surprises. The Price Momentum investment style is also trend-following and generally selects equity securities with positive price momentum and relative strength within the investable universe. The Growth investment style generally selects equity securities with expected and historical earnings growth and dividend growth.

The Quality investment style generally emphasizes equity securities with strong profitability and historical earnings stability, and considers additional factors, such as whether a company has improving margins, positive net income, positive operating capital, decreasing long-term debt and high-quality earnings, among others. The Funds research suggests that, while each of the investment styles described above can be individually successful over the long-term and during certain periods, each investment style may also experience down-swings ( i.e. , during certain market, economic, or other conditions an individual investment style may underperform compared to the relevant broad equity market). Building a portfolio with a diversified mix of investment styles is the Funds attempt to mitigate what the portfolio managers believe to be the cyclical nature of the individual investment styles.

The Funds diversified mix of investment styles is expected to remain fairly stable over time. The Fund may participate in initial public offerings (IPOs). The Fund may also invest a portion of its assets in real estate investment trusts (REITs). The Fund may also utilize foreign currency exchange contracts, stock index futures contracts, warrants and other derivative instruments. Although the Fund did not invest significantly in derivative instruments as of the most recent fiscal year end, it may do so at any time.

AXCBX Costs and Fees

AXCBX costs about $145 per $10,000 invested per year in fund expenses.

• Net expense ratio: 1.45%
• Gross expense ratio: 2.23%
• Portfolio turnover: 49%
• Brokerage commissions: 4.55 bps of average net assets (SEC N-CEN)

AXCBX Cashflows

Over the 12 months to 2019-12, AllianzGI Best Styles International Equity Fund had net inflows of $337.47K, from monthly SEC N-PORT filings.

AXCBX Debt Constituents

No individual debt constituents are reported in AllianzGI Best Styles International Equity Fund's latest SEC N-PORT filing.

AXCBX Prospectus and SEC Filings

Official AllianzGI Best Styles International Equity Fund filings on SEC EDGAR — prospectus, portfolio holdings and annual reports.

• Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2020-02-19
• Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2019-02-22
• Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2018-02-16
• Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2020-02-25
• Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2019-11-18
• Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2019-12-09
• Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2018-12-14

Related Funds

Other Emerging Markets Real Estate funds tracked on ABC INVEST:

• Westwood Low Volatility Equity Fund (WLVIX)
• Pzena U.S. Large Cap Value ETF (PZLV)
• Noble Absolute Return ETF (NOPE)
• Jackson Square Global Growth Fund (JSPVX)
• Jackson Square Select 20 Growth Fund (DPCEX)

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.