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Portfolio Management
Calvert teams with a carefully selected group of sub-advisors to manage our investment options. These sub-advisors are seasoned managers with a proven track record in their area of investment expertise. Together, Calvert and its sub-advisors research, analyze and select investments for inclusion in Calvert's investment options. Click here for more information about our subadvisor selection process.
Calvert and its sub-advisors include:
Calvert Asset Management Co., Inc. (CAMCO)
As investment advisor to the Calvert family of funds, CAMCO oversees more than $12.5 billion
in assets covering a broad range of equity, fixed-income, balanced, and asset allocation funds. CAMCO's Equities Department is responsible for evaluating and supervising the firm's equity sub-advisors - 11 world-class firms that have been carefully chosen for their expertise in their areas of specialization. CAMCO's Equities Department also oversees all of Calvert's equity and asset allocation funds. In addition, CAMCO directly manages a full family of fixed-income portfolios for individuals and institutions, employing a relative value strategy and seeking to uncover investment opportunities overlooked by Wall Street.
Acadian Asset Management, Inc.
Founded in 1986, Acadian Asset Management, Inc. emphasizes company fundamentals and bottom-up stock selection. Using a proprietary quantitative model, the firm assesses approximately 25,000 developed and emerging market stocks to identify those with the best potential to outperform while seeking to control risk relative to the MSCI EAFE Index. Acadian's process evaluates more than 200 region/industry combinations and more than 25 unique factors about each stock.
Atlanta Capital Management Co., L.L.C.
Atlanta Capital Management applies a High-Quality-Growth-Plus process to large cap investing. Established in 1969, Atlanta Capital combines top-down macroeconomic analysis with bottom-up fundamental analysis to identify high-quality growth companies with a long-term record of superior earnings. Atlanta Capital examines long-term economic, demographic, and political trends to identify high-quality companies in growth-oriented areas. Top-down research into sectors benefiting from heightened demand, improved pricing power or higher productivity is complemented by bottom-up, company-specific research.
Bridgeway Capital Management, Inc.
Established in 1993, Bridgeway Capital Management is a recognized industry leader in quantitative, small- and large-cap portfolio management. Bridgeway Capital uses a highly disciplined process based on proprietary stock selection models, striving to produce portfolios with high expected returns and limited downside risk.
Channing Capital Management, LLC
Specializing in mid- and small-cap value investing, Channing Capital Management employs a fundamental, bottom-up, research-driven analysis process to identify undervalued stocks of well-managed companies with attractive price-appreciation potential. Chicago-based Channing seeks to purchase stocks of companies with long-term growth potential that are selling at a significant discount relative to their fair market or intrinsic value.
F&C Management Limited
F&C Management is a wholly-owned subsidiary of F&C Asset Management, plc, which is a highly respected European SRI manager with a longheld commitment to the field. Founded in 1868 and headquartered in London (with additional offices throughout Europe and in Boston), F&C Asset Management, plc introduced the first socially responsible unit trust in the U.K. in 1984, and remains the largest SRI manager in the U.K. F&C Management Limited's investment philosophy combines socially and environmentally positive themes with fundamental financial analysis. It also employs an investment process that seeks to uncover information or form conclusions that are not generally known to the wider marketplace.
KBC Asset Management International Ltd.
KBC Asset Management International is a leading Dublin-based SRI firm whose principals have expertise in the fast-growing, nascent alternative energy sector, a long history of socially responsible investing, and a strong reputation in multi-cap global investing. KBC has one of the longest track records of any manager in alternative energy assets. The firm uses a combination of quantitative and fundamental investment processes to evaluate potential investments. Top-down views on industries, sectors, or regions act as risk controls, while a fair-value target model may be used to help determine the purchase or sale of a stock.
New Amsterdam Partners, LLC
Founded in 1986 and 100 percent employee-owned, New Amsterdam Partners applies a growth-at a-reasonable price investment strategy and a proprietary, dynamic valuation model. The manager combines rigorous quantitative and fundamental analyses in a highly transparent and disciplined investment process that seeks to capitalize on security mispricings in the market. Initial eligibility screens include completeness of accounting data, trading liquidity, and expected return analysis.
SSgA Funds Management, Inc.
SSgA Funds Management, Inc. (SSgA FM), an affiliate of State Street Global Advisors, has managed the Calvert Social Investment Fund Enhanced Equity Portfolio since its inception in April 1998. State Street Global Advisors pioneered the field of enhanced equity management. SSgA FM applies a proprietary "enhancement" process to the stocks in the Russell 1000® Index (a well-known, large-cap index) to identify stocks with the highest performance potential. SSgA FM's process includes proprietary growth, value, and "market sentiment" criteria.
World Asset Management, Inc.
World Asset Management, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Comerica Incorporated, has been a leader in indexing for more than 20 years. The firm provides clients with complete domestic and international market exposure through the use of indexed portfolios. World Asset Management oversees the Calvert Social Index strategy, which seeks to match the performance of the Calvert Social Index®, a broad-based, rigorously constructed benchmark for measuring the performance of large, U.S.-based socially responsible companies.
Subadvisor Selection Process
Selecting and Monitoring Portfolio Mangers:
With over $12.5 billion
in assets under management, Calvert Asset Management Company, Inc. (CAMCO) oversees a carefully selected group of prominent institutional money managers.
To evaluate and recommend prospective portfolio mangers and to monitor firms on an ongoing basis, we employ Calvert's Basic 6 framework, our proprietary approach to identifying, engaging, and monitoring equity sub-advisors.
The routine, quarterly process starts with a review of the fund's three-year performance versus its benchmarks as of the most recent and previous calendar quarters. Should the review reveal sub-standard performance, a more exhaustive Basic 6 review is undertaken. The results from this comprehensive review will dictate further decisions regarding the fund manager's tenure.
A closer look at Calvert's Basic 6:
1. Alignment of fund manager's philosophy and fund's objective
Calvert Equities performs an in-depth assessment of prospective and incumbent managers -- from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives -- to ensure that their style, strategy, and investment process are consistent with each fund's investment objective.
- Evaluate the statistical fit of the investment process to the fund's benchmark.
- Review buy and sell disciplines.
- Assess risk control consideration and measures.
- Verify the firm has access to sufficient resources and systems to effectively implement the process.
2. Performance
While past returns are important in assessing a manager, they do not by themselves, provide the full picture. We want to know how past returns were achieved and how the portfolio responded to shifts in economic conditions, the market environment, and other events and trends. In other words, no single performance measure can contain sufficient information to evaluate a potential manager, thus a multidimensional approach is employed.
- Evaluate historical performance relative to peer groups and style-specific benchmarks.
- Employ multiple time frames, including rolling annualized observations.
- Analyze performance relative to "bull" and "bear" market environments. It's important, for example, to evaluate sub-advisor performance in the context of the overall market and relative to peer managers practicing the same style and strategy.
- Perform monthly and quarterly attribution analysis at multiple levels and evaluate sources of benchmark-relative returns.
3. Consistency and quality of investment process
It's of the utmost importance that the investment strategy and style be clearly defined, articulated, and implemented. When a manager's style or strategy is out of favor, it may turn in performance that lags the market. In these instances, patience is a virtue. We want to be confident that the firm will adhere to its disciplines - and not abandon them in the interest of chasing returns.
- Evaluate consistency of manager's style and approach under various market conditions.
- Analyze whether sources of excess performance are attributable to stock selection skill or systematic risk control factors.
4. A firm of high quality
The key question is whether all the firm's resources are deployed to produce good investment returns for clients. Are the manager's incentives consistent with client interests? When we evaluate the investment management talent, we gauge its depth and breadth. There should be ongoing evidence that the investment team has a high level of trust among colleagues - levels usually forged over long timeframes and by working in different market conditions. The four points below explain our process in identifying "high-quality" firms:
- Conduct on-site due diligence visits to review and evaluate the effectiveness of the investment team and its processes
- Review firm's structure, ownership, incentives, and compliance capabilities.
- Assess firm's business, financial, regulatory, and legal health.
- Review firm's published policies to ensure compliant and ethical conduct.
5. Commitment to Calvert
We evaluate the manager's commitment to integrating their investment process with Calvert's SRI philosophy and investment process so that our portfolio's gain the "Equity Edge."
- Ensure that management is committed to continuously keeping Calvert informed of any changes.
- Verify availability and access to portfolio managers and other investment management professionals.
- Analyze ongoing ability for managers to integrate their investment process with Calvert's ESG (environmental, social, and governance) criteria.
6. Effective Communication
We believe portfolio managers should clearly articulate their strategy and decision-making process, and be open, candid, and accessible. It's important to know what resources are made available.
- Evaluate manager's ability to effectively communicate the investment style, strategy, and process.
- Evaluate manager's ability to effectively assist and support Calvert's efforts to communicate with institutional investors and investment consultants.
Investment in mutual funds involves risk, including possible loss of principal invested.
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