Flexibility Within and Across Asset Classes Helped Drive Outperformance
A valuable “tool” for adapting to a shifting investment environment.
Fund managers navigating swiftly changing market environments face tough choices. Sometimes, conditions call for wholesale shifts in the portfolio. At other times, managers limit moves, believing a portfolio is well positioned to benefit from the unfolding environment. Still, other situations call for a more tactical approach, leading managers to add or reduce selectively. But whatever the environment, one “tool” is indispensable in adapting to change: flexibility.
Summit Fund is Thornburg Investment Management’s most flexible fund. A total portfolio solution able to invest across a full spectrum of global stocks and bonds in pursuit of its objectives: capital appreciation and current income intended to exceed the rate of inflation.
This flexibility was on display at the outset of the pandemic market, and the shifts it facilitated helped drive the fund’s peer-topping performance.
Select Stocks on Sale: A Big Move Into Equities
During the first months of the COVID crisis, as the magnitude of the pandemic’s impact became clearer, stock markets around the world plummeted. The downturn did not discriminate; leading global companies often fell as far as less competitive firms.
Thornburg Summit Fund went into the pandemic somewhat conservatively positioned, with its stock allocation toward the lower end of its typical range. But, as markets faltered, the fund opportunistically increased exposure to global equities. Summit leaned into sold-off, growth-oriented segments of the market, targeting companies managers believed had the durability and business models to effectively navigate economic shutdowns and disruptions. This included shifting into areas of the market we believed were especially well positioned to benefit from digital transformation, such as payment solutions providers, e-commerce, and IT services, as well as globally dominant consumer brands and “recession-proof” pharmaceuticals with attractive entry points.
While many multi-asset portfolios make tactical allocation shifts from the top down, Summit’s repositioning was driven from the bottom up via a high-conviction research process. The fund moved with confidence thanks in large part to the due diligence they’d already performed on these firms.
These moves were significant, taking the fund’s stock allocation from 40% in early February 2020 to more than 55% by the end of March. The shift turned out to be well timed as the fund’s initially low equity holdings limited exposure during the worst part of the downturn, while increasing its stock holdings near the market bottom positioned it well for the ensuing turnaround.
Seeking Opportunity Across Asset Classes
Importantly, there is another dimension to the fund’s flexibility that also helped facilitate its favorable positioning: flexibility across asset classes. That’s because seizing opportunities among stocks required cash. And while the fund had some cash on hand to facilitate its purchases, it sold or reduced some stock holdings to buy “on sale” companies. However, most of the funding required the sale of select bond investments.
This required collaboration and consent between stock and bond managers who remained in constant conversation about portfolio positioning. Through thoughtful communication, the managers reached consensus that select growth stocks with catalysts related to the unique environment generally provided a more attractive risk/reward profile than some bond holdings. As growth equities rallied through the summer, the managers gradually began increasing exposure into more cyclical and value-oriented equities they believed would eventually benefit from the subsequent economic reopening.
Opportunistic Bond Investing
Interestingly, it wasn’t only the fund’s stock holdings that changed during this time.
The portfolio managers also used sales proceeds to buy bonds that were selling at deep discounts to their face value but had the potential to rebound and deliver stock-like returns. Specifically, early in the pandemic, when air travel had all but come to a standstill, they invested in bonds secured by jetliners.
On the surface — and even in hindsight – this may seem risky. However, Thornburg’s investment professionals took the time to understand the terms of the bonds and deemed the risk of default was low relative to the return potential. This turned out to be the case as these bonds increased in value by nearly 50%.
All these moves speak to the fund’s innate flexibility in pursuing its objectives. But the real power lies in the willingness of portfolio managers to shun territoriality and act in a coordinated fashion for the good of fund shareholders. It’s what made these opportunistic investments possible and has been instrumental in delivering superior returns to shareholders.
Take a closer look at Thornburg Summit Fund, including current performance.