Investment Process
Launched in 1995, the Sextant Funds provide the basic elements to build a low-expense, balanced investment program emphasizing a value approach to investing.
Value investing allows for longer holding periods which can lead to tax efficiency. The Sextant Funds’ investment process focuses on fundamentals at both the issuer and industry level. Saturna Capital’s research team further seeks issuers with sustainable competitive advantages, high-quality operations (including diverse and high-functioning management teams), strong free cash flows, attractive growth rates, increasing dividends, low price volatility, and low debt.
The Sextant bond funds employ rigorous comparative analysis that examines credit prices relative to credit default swaps from the same issuer, if available, as well as prices on comparable instruments with similar maturities. In general, for portfolio managers to consider a credit instrument for inclusion in a Sextant Fund, the security must be investment grade and be considered high-quality commercial paper. Consistent with its objective of high income, the Global High Income Fund favors bonds of lower quality, but may have up to half of its investments in bonds rated A- or higher.
The Growth Fund and International Fund invest primarily in stocks, the Short-Term Bond Fund and Bond Income Fund invest in bonds, the Core Fund invests in both stocks and bonds, and the Global High Income Fund invests in common stocks, preferred stocks, and bonds. All Sextant Funds seek tax efficiency for their shareowners and reduced trading expenses by limiting portfolio trading.
The Funds do not purchase securities on margin or sell securities short or purchase or write put or call options; purchase “restricted securities” (those which are subject to legal or contractual restrictions on resale or are otherwise not readily marketable); or invest in oil, gas, or other mineral exploration leases and programs.
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A Few Words About Risk
The Growth Fund may invest in smaller companies, which involve higher investment risks in that they often have limited product lines, markets and resources, or their securities may trade less frequently and have greater price fluctuation than those of larger companies.
The International Fund involves risks not typically associated with investing in US securities. These include fluctuations in currency exchange rates, less public information about securities, less governmental market supervision, and lack of uniform financial, social, and political standards.
The Core Fund involves the risks of both equity and debt investing, although it seeks to mitigate these risks by maintaining a widely diversified portfolio that includes domestic stocks, foreign stocks, short and long-term bonds, and money market instruments.
Investment in the Global High Income Fund entails the risks of both equity and debt securities, although it seeks to mitigate these risks through a widely diversified portfolio that includes foreign and domestic stocks and bonds. Issuers of high-yield securities are generally not as strong financially as those issuing higher quality securities. Investments in high-yield securities can be speculative in nature. High-yield bonds may have low or no ratings and may be considered “junk bonds.”
The risks inherent in the Short-Term Bond and Bond Income Funds depend primarily on the terms and quality of the obligations in their portfolios, as well as on bond market conditions. When interest rates rise, bond prices fall. When interest rates fall, bond prices rise. Bonds with longer maturities (such as those held by the Bond Income Fund) usually are more sensitive to interest rate changes than bonds with shorter maturities (such as those held by the Short-Term Bond Fund). The Funds entail credit risk, which is the possibility that a bond will not be able to pay interest or principal when due. If the credit quality of a bond is perceived to decline, investors will demand a higher yield, which means a lower price on that bond to compensate for the higher level of risk.