Cormac Weldon, an old hand with a good long-term track record of delivering performance throughout different market cycles, has run Artemis US Smaller Companies since its inception in 2014.

Weldon invests in small companies of up to $10 billion in size, typically selecting 40 to 60 stocks from an investment universe of more than 2,000. He aims to give investors exposure to the best of America’s innovative, entrepreneurial, fast-growing and under-researched small companies. He starts by looking at the US economy to identify areas of the market that are benefiting from thematic trends, as well as those where conditions may not be favourable.

Once a stock has been identified as worthy of closer inspection, in-depth, bottom-up analysis and financial modelling are used to develop and test the investment case. While collective research efforts support the fund, its final composition rests with Weldon. Three favoured sectors at present are industrials, consumer goods and financials.

Considering the fund’s small cap bias and single region of investment, this strategy could well fit the need of both balanced and more adventurous investors with longer-term investment horizon. Due to its unconstrained and concentrated nature, the fund’s return profile could be more volatile than the market, which makes it higher-risk option. Therefore, this strategy could be best utilised as a satellite holding within a well-diversified portfolio.

September 2020