Latest News

12.11.2018

The Lead - "ESG in the Secret Sauce"

• The preference for ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) investing continues to be reinforced through recent studies like the one above.

• Forbes recently noted that “there are 150 different reporting metric systems in place, with none being the overwhelming framework or rating system of choice.”

• Empirical Research’s work notes that, “companies with favorable ESG credentials tend to have predictable and higher quality earnings, are lightly shorted, have lower capital intensity, return capital to shareholders whenever they can, and generally trade at lower multiples.”  These characteristics are consistent with our investment pillars.

• While some investors have laudable goals to change the world, we see ESG investing as investing and use a recent stock purchase as an example.

11.28.2018

Associate Spotlight - Mary Weeks Fountain

Sterling’s Associate Spotlight for November 2018 features Mary Weeks Fountain, Managing Director & Senior Portfolio Manager on our Private Client Team. A long-standing Sterling associate, Mary Weeks has been a with the firm for over 30 years. Read more about her in her Q&A.

11.02.2018

The Lead - "Winner Takes All"

• One of our primary investment tenets is investing in companies with exceptional returns on capital.
• A McKinsey Consulting study released this month highlighted that of the 6,000 companies with $1 billion or more in revenue, the top 10% capture 80% of the economic profits, the middle 80% essentially zero, and the bottom 10% destroy value. 
• Equity Opportunity Group portfolios tend to have concentrations in sectors that have proved to be fertile areas of economic value creation.

10.05.2018

Associate Spotlight - Tim Beyer

The Sterling Associate Spotlight for October features Tim Beyer, Managing Director & Portfolio Manager. Read more about Tim’s passion for working in asset management and what sparked his interest in the industry at a young age.

10.03.2018

The Lead - "Defining Quality"

• As active managers we have heated debates on portfolio holdings, the most recent was on whether a security was a “quality” company.
• While quantitative metrics can try to measure quality, we believe there are shortcoming in merely screening for quality and “setting and forgetting."  We highlight former holding General Electric as an example.
• We find having generalists with different perspectives but aligned goals helps in our pursuit of generating above average returns with below average risk.

09.19.2018

Associate Spotlight - Lori McCartney

Lori is a Director & Regulatory and Risk Management Analyst and has been with Sterling since 2015. Take a look at her Q&A to learn more about how she started with Sterling, hear advice she would give her younger self, and even the one rule she would have everyone follow if she could.

09.07.2018

The Lead - “Questioning Consensus”

• Assessing the opportunity in emerging market exposure at present requires “questioning consensus.”
• Several recent portfolio additions have various levels of exposure to these markets, with valuations appearing to start to balance risk and reward.  We highlight one addition.
• These additions are consistent with our process noted since 2001 where we search for inexpensive quality companies where the fears of the crowd may be misplaced.

09.06.2018

Casey McIntyre Joins Sterling as Chief Administrative Officer

Sterling Capital Management LLC (Sterling Capital) announced today that Casey McIntyre has joined the firm as its new Chief Administrative Officer.

08.22.2018

Sterling Capital Welcomes Whitney Stewart

Sterling Capital is pleased to announce that Whitney Stewart, CFA joined the team as an Executive Director and Client Portfolio Manager in August 2018.

08.08.2018

The Lead - "Where is the Big Money Looking to Move?"

• After a recent visit to the world’s largest consulting firm by one of our colleagues, we highlight the trend in looking for investment managers that protect capital as the economic cycle matures.
• Protecting capital has not been top of mind of many investors’ minds as the current bull market becomes the longest in history this month at 114 months per Strategas Research.
• We note that Sterling Equity Opportunities strategies have a history of protecting capital since their inception.

08.07.2018

Associate Spotlight - Eddie Watson

Eddie is a Director and Sales Desk Manager and shares a bit about himself and the lessons he has learned throughout his career journey in this month's Q&A.

07.11.2018

Associate Spotlight - J. Travis Pollack

Travis is a Director and Investment Analyst on the Advisory Solutions Team and has been with Sterling since 2005. Check out his Q&A to find out more about him and maybe even get some advice for starting a career in the investment industry.

07.06.2018

The Lead - Value Versus Growth 2018

• “Growth” strategies have blown value oriented strategies out of the water in recent years. Value oriented strategies have underperformed dramatically in recent years if measured on a trailing 10 year basis.
• Currently, “value” stocks trade at one of the lowest relative valuations with improving relative profitability.
• Within Equity Income, Special Opportunities, SMID Opportunities, Insight, and Global Leaders portfolios new money in the first half of the year was placed in stocks where the average price-to-earnings ratio was below the S&P 500, the average growth rate last year was twice that of the S&P 500 and consistent with improving fundamentals, the average return on equity for these purchases increased 40% since 2015.

06.19.2018

Charles Durham Joins Sterling as Chief Compliance Officer

Sterling Capital Management LLC (Sterling Capital) announced today that Charles “Charlie” Durham has joined the firm as the new Chief Compliance Officer. Charlie is also the new Chief Compliance Officer of the Sterling Capital Funds. He brings over 15 years of compliance and regulatory experience to Sterling Capital.

06.13.2018

Strategies for a Rising Interest Rate Environment

While rising interest rates may present challenges to bond investors, history shows that a diversified fixed income portfolio can weather difficult periods remarkably well. Read more to find out how we navigate a rising interest rate environment.

06.13.2018

The Fed Moves Again

As widely expected, the Federal Reserve continued its path of rate normalization by raising the target range for the federal funds rate today.

06.07.2018

The Lead - "Where is the Opportunity?"

• We are finding more “opportunities” within the value pool in 2018. Since the beginning of the year, the average stock added to the five largest Equity Opportunity portfolios has a forward price-to–earnings ratio below that of the S&P 500.
• Does Value look attractive relative to Growth if we include stocks that trade overseas? Yes. The MSCI World Value stocks trade at 15x earnings versus 25x for growth, the widest difference since 2006 according to Bloomberg.

06.06.2018

Associate Spotlight - Farley C. Shiner

Farley C. Shiner is a Managing Director and Senior Client Strategist at Sterling Capital on our Equity Opportunities Team, focusing on operations, marketing and client service. Vie the PDF below to more about Farley and hear some fun stories about his years with Sterling Capital.

05.08.2018

Associate Spotlight - Robert W. Bridges

Robert W. Bridges is an Executive Director, Portfolio Manager and is Co-Head of Factor Investing/Behavioral Finance. Bob has been an integral part of the Sterling team since 1996 and graciously shared a bit about himself in this month’s associate spotlight.

05.01.2018

The Lead - "Focus on Quality Dividends Growers"

• Why own high quality dividend paying stocks in a potential rising rate environment?  They have a history of outperforming those simply paying high yields.
• Over the past seven years, S&P 500 companies have increased their debt levels making stock selection more important than ever.  This month one stock provided an example.
• Our core investment pillars of focusing on stocks growing quality earnings and dividends by winning in their markets rather than taking on debt to fund growth, should place our strategies to perform well in a rising rate environment.

04.17.2018

Announcement For Broker Dealers

Starting May 14, 2018, Broker dealers will be required to disclose the mark-up and costs for many municipal securities transactions.  The new MSRB rule primarily applies to same-day, offsetting principal trades for non-institutional customers.  By enhancing the price transparency, retail investors can better assess the true costs associated with purchasing individual bonds.   Investment professionals can find more information on this Rule by visiting our Resource Center here.

04.02.2018

Associate Spotlight - Michael P. McVicker

We are excited to continue our Monthly Associate Spotlight series with Executive Director & Portfolio Manager Michael P. McVicker. Mike has been with Sterling Capital since 1992 and is a member of our Fixed Income Team.

04.02.2018

Retirement Announcement - Rose Alexander

It is with warm wishes that we announce Rose Alexander’s retirement from Sterling Capital Management.

03.16.2018

Associate Spotlight - George F. Shipp

George is the founder of Sterling’s Equity Opportunities Team and joined Sterling Capital Management as part of a business realignment in 2013. Here are a few things you may not already know about George.

02.08.2018

The Return of Equity Market Volatility

After an almost unprecedented period of record low equity market volatility that began in late 2016, equity markets have experienced a sharp reversal from record highs set in late January 2018.

02.08.2018

Tax Reform Insights and Implications

The most significant change to the U.S. tax code in over 30 years became official when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law on December 22, 2017.

02.05.2018

The Federal Reserve: Transition of Leadership

Jerome “Jay” Powell has officially taken over leadership of the Federal Reserve, becoming the 16th chairman of the FOMC.

02.02.2018

Sterling Capital Funds Introduces the R6 Share Class

The Sterling Capital Funds added the R6 share class for seven of its mutual funds which offers eligible clients a share class without shareholder servicing fees or sales charges.

01.23.2018

Sterling Capital Behavioral International Equity Fund Marks Three-Year Anniversary

Sterling Capital Behavioral International Equity Fund has ranked near the top of its peers in its respective Morningstar Foreign Large Value Category (based on total returns) for the three-year trailing period as of Dec. 31, 2017. The Fund’s Institutional shares class (SBIIX) received an overall five-star Morningstar Rating™ (based on risk-adjusted returns) and finished in the top 11 percent (out of 265 funds in its peer category) for the three-year period ending Dec. 31, 2017.