Strong fundamental research and a thoughtful approach with apt use of momentum warrant an Above Average Process rating.
Lead manager Giri Devulapally aims to find big, long-term winners while limiting downside risk. He and his team focus on companies with durable competitive advantages, clear opportunities for margin expansion, and sizable addressable markets.
Devulapally recognizes that promising growth stocks often carry hefty price tags, so he tracks each holding’s valuation and trims positions when they appear overextended relative to history. To limit risk, he typically initiates positions at small weightings and adds to them as the market begins to recognize the catalysts his team has identified. He also shifts allocations toward sectors showing strong price momentum, viewing these runs as the market’s sign of further upside. Despite the portfolio’s momentum tilt, annual portfolio turnover remains moderate, reflecting a measured approach rather than heavy trading.
Still, he’s not a strict momentum player. If a stock’s price dips but the investment thesis remains sound, he may add to it. However, if momentum fades alongside a weakening thesis, he won’t hesitate to reduce or exit the position.
In early 2025, the firm transitioned the US mutual fund to nondiversified status, allowing the team more flexibility in position sizing. The non-US-domiciled vehicles still follow local diversification rules, which could lead to larger portfolio differences moving forward.
The team’s focus on positive price momentum can lead to significant shifts in both sector allocations and the portfolio’s stylistic traits. During the past 10 years, as technology has steadily grown in the Russell 1000 Growth Index, the strategy’s tech allocation has gone from a large overweighting to a large underweighting and then was more in line with the index by early 2024. In late 2024, it was back to more than a 10-percentage-point underweighting, but as tech sold off in early 2025, the team started buying it back; as of September, it cut the underweighting in half to roughly 5 percentage points.
Valuation metrics can swing as well. For most of manager Giri Devulapally’s 20-year tenure, the strategy carried higher price multiples than the index and large-growth category peers. In 2021 and 2022, however, the portfolio adopted a more defensive stance, reflecting a momentum-aware approach when many high-growth names began to slide. As of November 2025, its price multiples, such as price/earnings, were slightly above both the index and typical peer.
Devulapally lets winners run, often adding to positions after the market takes notice. During the 2023 market rally, he boosted Nvidia to 5% from 1% of assets and Meta to 5% from near zero. By September 2025, Nvidia had grown to 12.3% of assets, slightly below its weighting in the Russell 1000 Growth Index.
