Thank you for your interest in NFJ. Our investment team is as passionate about value investing as our founders were more than 30 years ago, seeking to identify the common attributes of attractively valued companies with higher-quality characteristics that the team believes can outperform over time. In keeping with the firm’s entrepreneurial spirit, we are proud to advance NFJ’s value investing tradition into the 21st century by integrating refinements to our valuation process.
To those who ask “Is value investing dead?” I respond “No, but it’s changing.” When I started at NFJ in 2007, value stocks were returning to vogue after falling out of favor in the late 1990s. At that time, our team was successful at identifying the valuation metrics that worked best on an industry-by-industry basis. When I stepped into the CIO role at the end of 2016, one of my top priorities was to invest in our capabilities with big data and machine learning. With the rise of passive investing and the proliferation of available data changing the landscape of active investing, this evolution has been critical. Today, our team is using technology to identify and take advantage of investment insights faster and more efficiently on behalf of our clients.
On February 1, 2021, NFJ became an affiliate of Virtus Investment Partners. We are excited by the opportunities this partnership represents, from restoring the firm’s name and boutique status, to introducing our distinctive approach to new investors. We’d also like to thank our existing clients for entrusting their assets to us and for their continued support.
Sincerely,
John R. Mowrey, CFA
Chief Investment Officer