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Investments

Fixed Income

Sterling Capital manages institutional assets for a diverse group of clients, including corporate, public, insurance, non-profits, and health care investment pools.

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Overview

Our primary goals are long-term, consistent investment performance and exceptional client service. We achieve these goals by maintaining a consistent process for managing risk and a complete focus on developing strong client relationships.

Sterling Capital's Fixed Income team strives to deliver consistent, superior risk-adjusted performance over time through a multi-faceted approach to investing. Based on our team's forecast for the broader economy and specific market sectors, we utilize a variety of strategic and tactical levers that allow us to construct portfolios for any type of market environment.

Due to the asymmetric risk/return profile of bonds, we believe in the importance of quantifying risk prior to assessing the potential return of any investment. We analyze risk on both a stand-alone basis and within the portfolio context and firmly believe that when it comes to risk, “if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it.”

Fixed Income

Insights

05.07.2025 • Charles Wittmann, CFA®

The Lead - Follow the Money

- We believe the inputs that create the ability for a company to pay dividends is of critical importance, especially if the economic environment becomes challenging.
- Starting in the later part of 2024, aggregate Bloomberg estimated earnings for the S&P 500® Index began to moderate then decline.
- While dividend payout ratios have improved, we would note that the rate of the market’s dividend growth has fallen almost 50%, to mid-single digits, since 2022.
- We believe more tempered growth expectations and companies signaling greater caution by moderating their commitment to return cash to shareholders via dividends is our sign to remain vigilant on the fundamental sources that generate dividend growth.

04.03.2025 • Charles Wittmann, CFA®

The Lead - Resilient Quality

- Economic sectors associated with value stocks, such as industrials and financials, have seen their quality measurements improve.
- With slowing economic growth and persistent inflation leading to “stagflation” concerns, what type of equity investments tend to shine?
- We show how quality companies that pay dividends and repurchase their shares have differentiated themselves in similar periods.

03.28.2025 • James Kerin, CFA®

Introduction to Collateralized Loan Obligations

Collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) are actively-managed securitized pools of leveraged loans, providing floating-rate exposure to corporate credit risk.

03.21.2025 • Andrew Richman, CTFA

Fed Lowers Growth Outlook But Raises Inflation Expectations

Andy Richman's update on the March Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

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03.17.2025

Press Release: Sterling Capital Launches Enhanced Core Bond ETF

Sterling Capital Management LLC (Sterling Capital) is pleased to announce the launch of the Sterling Capital Enhanced Core Bond ETF (BATS: SCEC). The Enhanced Core Bond ETF is the first fixed income exchanged-traded fund launched by Sterling Capital since the firm launched its active ETF platform in 2020. It is also the first product launched by Sterling Capital since its acquisition by Guardian Capital Group Limited last year.

03.07.2025 • Charles Wittmann, CFA®

The Lead - Raising the Bar

- For the past two years, investors have experienced a powerful price momentum-driven market.
- Price momentum supported by earnings revisions typically have a tight relationship coming out of a recession, but 2024 was different.
- We explore the recent inverse relationship between momentum and dividend payers over this month and the past year.

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