While Calamos has fortified its ranks for the future, new initiatives warrant a wait-and-see approach, and the firm maintains an Average Parent rating.
John Calamos Sr. founded his namesake firm in 1977 and built its heritage in convertible bonds. The firm was temporarily publicly traded but pivoted back to private ownership in January 2017, within a year of current CEO John Koudounis taking over. Since then, Calamos has institutionalized the firm’s executive suite, making a series of hires and adding new positions over several years to solidify its leadership; it hired a new chief operating officer, chief marketing officer, and chief distribution officer, as well as a new head of product and head of exchange-traded funds. The firm’s long-term incentive program has also evolved to further the succession of its investment teams, which have been stable after turnover in the mid-2010s.
While the firm’s long-standing convertibles expertise is intact—Calamos Convertible turned 40 years old in 2025, and the firm’s largest fund, Calamos Market Neutral Income, uses convertibles arbitrage among other substrategies—Calamos has come a long way from its roots on the investment front. The firm has been busy launching products to diversify its lineup and has USD 43.7 billion in assets as of July 2025, with a focus on alternatives strategies. Newer ventures include a partnership with private assets specialist Aksia on private credit and private equity interval funds, as well as the fund industry’s first autocallable ETF. It has also launched a suite of “Structured Protection” ETFs on certain US equity indexes and bitcoin. These pursuits are innovative, but they are still in their infancy; it remains to be seen whether the firm can execute these strategies well or if investors are interested.
Note: This share class' Parent Pillar rating is analyst-driven, as its Branding Name, Calamos (Branding Name ID: BN000008CI), is covered by Morningstar Manager Research.
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