Consistent Team and Process at Silver-Rated Small-Value Fund

Nick Watson: Silver-rated Delaware Small Cap Value benefits from a long-tenured team that implements a consistent approach.

Lead manager Chris Beck has been at the helm of this strategy for over two decades. His process emphasizes free cash flow. He looks to identify attractively valued firms that he believes can generate sustainable free cash flows over the long term. That long-term outlook is evident in the portfolio’s low turnover ratio--Beck tends to hold on to his winning picks, which will often appreciate into mid-cap territory. As a result, the portfolio’s average market cap has historically been higher than its Russell 2000 Value benchmark’s.

A key source of this strategy’s competitive edge is its stable and experienced analyst team. Three of the four team members have been working together with Beck since 2010, and they added an additional analyst in 2016. They’ve shown that they can consistently identify quality opportunities over the long term.

Each of the fund’s five share classes offer a solid cost advantage as well, which rounds out the case for this strategy.