1290 VT GAMCO Mergers & Acquisitions Portfolio
Data updated: 2026-08-25
C000104177 — 1290 VT GAMCO Mergers & Acquisitions Portfolio. United States Mid Cap Blend / Core Equity. Holdings, fees, performance and SEC filings.
C000104177 Fund Overview
1290 VT GAMCO Mergers & Acquisitions Portfolio is a US mutual fund managed by Eq Advisors Trust, categorised as United States Mid Cap Blend / Core Equity. ABC INVEST provides holdings, performance, costs, cashflows, risk data, prospectus documents and SEC filings, sourced from SEC filings.
- Type: US mutual fund
- Manager: Eq Advisors Trust
- Category: United States Mid Cap Blend / Core Equity
- Assets under management: $172.37M
- 1-year return: 17.4%
- SEC CIK: 0001027263
- SEC series ID: S000009150
- Share class ID: C000104177
C000104177 Investment Objective and Strategy
1290 VT GAMCO Mergers & Acquisitions Portfolio describes its objective and strategy as follows, from its latest prospectus filed with the SEC by Eq Advisors Trust.
Investment objective
Seeks to achieve capital appreciation.
Principal investment strategy
Under normal circumstances, the Portfolio invests primarily in arbitrage opportunities by investing in equity securities of companies that are involved in publicly announced mergers, takeovers, tender offers, leveraged buyouts, spin-offs, liquidations and other corporate re-organizations and in equity securities of companies that the Sub-Adviser believes are likely acquisition targets within 12 to 18 months. When a company agrees to be acquired by another company, its stock price often quickly rises to just below the stated acquisition price. If the Sub-Adviser determines that the acquisition is likely to be consummated on schedule at the stated acquisition price, then the Portfolio may purchase (if it does not already hold) or increase its investment in the selling companys securities, offering the Portfolio the possibility of generous returns in excess of the return on cash equivalents with a limited risk of excessive loss of capital.
At times, the stock of the acquiring company may also be purchased or shorted. The Portfolio may hold a significant portion of its assets in cash or cash equivalents in anticipation of arbitrage opportunities. The Portfolio may invest in companies of any size and from time to time may invest in companies with small, mid, and large market capitalizations. The Portfolio generally invests in securities of U.S. companies, but also may invest up to 20% of its assets in foreign securities, including those in emerging markets. The Portfolio intends to invest primarily in common stocks, but it may also invest in other securities that the Sub-Adviser believes provide opportunities for capital appreciation, such as preferred stocks and warrants. It is expected that the Portfolio will engage in active or frequent trading of portfolio securities to achieve its investment objective.
In this connection, it is expected that the Portfolio may have a portfolio turnover rate of 150% or more. In choosing investments, the Sub-Adviser searches for the best values on securities that it believes have the potential to achieve the Portfolios investment objective of capital appreciation. In seeking to identify companies that are likely to be acquisition targets, the Sub-Adviser considers, among other things, consolidation trends within particular industries, whether a particular industry or company is undergoing a fundamental change or restructuring, the Sub-Advisers assessment of the private market value of individual companies and the potential for an event or catalyst to occur that enhances a companys underlying value. The private market value of a company is the value that the Sub-Adviser believes informed investors would be willing to pay to acquire the entire company.
The Sub-Adviser seeks to limit excessive risk of capital loss by utilizing various investment strategies, including investing in value oriented equity securities that should trade at a significant discount to the Sub-Advisers assessment of their private market value. In evaluating arbitrage opportunities with respect to companies involved in publicly announced mergers or other corporate restructurings, the Sub-Adviser seeks to acquire target companies at a rate of return that provides compensation for assuming deal completion risk. Since such investments are ordinarily short-term in nature, they will tend to increase the turnover rate of the Portfolio, thereby increasing its brokerage and other transaction expenses. The Sub-Adviser may sell a security for a variety of reasons, such as when the security is selling in the public market at or near the Sub-Advisers estimate of its private market value or if the catalyst expected to happen fails to materialize.
The Portfolio may invest its uninvested cash in high-quality, short-term debt securities, including repurchase agreements and high-quality money market instruments, and also may invest uninvested cash in money market funds, including money market funds managed by the Adviser. Generally, these securities offer less potential for gains than other types of securities. The Portfolio also may lend its portfolio securities to earn additional income.
C000104177 Holdings
Top 10 holdings of 1290 VT GAMCO Mergers & Acquisitions Portfolio by percentage of net assets, from the fund's latest SEC N-PORT filing.
| Holding | % of net assets |
|---|---|
| JPMorgan Prime Money Market Fund | 26.84% |
| Chart Industries, Inc. | 3.39% |
| Telesat Corp. | 2.98% |
| Atlanta Braves Holdings, Inc. | 2.96% |
| Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc. | 2.86% |
| Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. | 2.68% |
| National Fuel Gas Co. | 2.44% |
| TXNM Energy, Inc. | 2.40% |
| Allspring Govt Fund Lex | 2.32% |
| Vulcan Materials Co. | 2.26% |
C000104177 Portfolio Allocation
Asset-class allocation of 1290 VT GAMCO Mergers & Acquisitions Portfolio by percentage of net assets, from the latest SEC N-PORT filing.
| Asset class | Allocation |
|---|---|
| Equity | 67.9% |
| Cash & Equivalents | 31.6% |
| Other | 0.3% |
C000104177 Performance
Total returns for C000104177 (as of 2026-10-01), from SEC filings.
| Period | Total return |
|---|---|
| YTD | 6.8% |
| 1 year | 17.4% |
| 3 years (annualised) | 12.8% |
| 5 years (annualised) | 7.6% |
C000104177 Risk Information
Risk metrics for C000104177, derived from monthly returns in SEC filings.
- 1-year volatility (annualised): 6.3%
C000104177 Costs and Fees
C000104177 costs about $107 per $10,000 invested per year in fund expenses.
- Net expense ratio: 1.07%
- Gross expense ratio: 1.16%
- Portfolio turnover: 177%
- Brokerage commissions: 6.35 bps of average net assets (SEC N-CEN)
C000104177 Cashflows
Over the 12 months to 2026-06, 1290 VT GAMCO Mergers & Acquisitions Portfolio had net outflows of $9.15M, from monthly SEC N-PORT filings.
| Month | Net flow |
|---|---|
| 2026-06 | −$1.30M |
| 2026-05 | −$1.79M |
| 2026-04 | −$1.59M |
| 2026-03 | −$2.34M |
| 2026-02 | −$1.21M |
| 2026-01 | −$1.50M |
C000104177 Debt Constituents
No individual debt constituents are reported in 1290 VT GAMCO Mergers & Acquisitions Portfolio's latest SEC N-PORT filing.
C000104177 Prospectus and SEC Filings
Official 1290 VT GAMCO Mergers & Acquisitions Portfolio filings on SEC EDGAR — prospectus, portfolio holdings and annual reports.
- Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2025-04-28
- Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2024-04-26
- Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2023-04-26
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-08-25
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-05-26
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-02-27
- Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2026-03-11
- Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2025-03-10
Related Funds
Other United States Mid Cap Blend / Core Equity funds tracked on ABC INVEST:
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.