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HomeQ. What does the Fund invest in?
A. We invest in high-quality, blue-chip companies with a lower risk profile than the broader market—in particular, companies with consistent dividend growth, since they are often market leaders with stable business models, strong balance sheets, and management teams committed to shareholders.
Q. What kind of dividend growth do you look for?
A. Rather than chasing companies with the highest yield, which can be risky, we look for companies with a consistent record of raising their dividends—usually for the last 10 consecutive years. Why? Because that produces a group of stocks with the type of characteristics that most clients prefer: higher quality, higher yield, faster dividend growth, and lower risk.
Q. How concerned are you about higher taxes on dividends?
A. We believe our strategy of focusing on industry leaders with a solid dividend growth pedigree will more than offset such risk. History shows that dividend growth has continued regardless of tax treatment; for example, dividend payout ratios were considerably higher in the early 1990s, when dividends were fully taxable.
Q. How is this Fund managed?
A. The management process for the Calibrated Dividend Growth Fund is similar to that used with other funds in our Calibrated Suite. All of those funds follow a rigorous, active management approach that combines insightful fundamental and quantitative investment research.
Q. How would you describe your research discipline?
A. We follow an integrated approach that combines insights derived from fundamental research with a proprietary valuation model. The team seeks to identify stocks that it believes to be selling below their true value.
Q. What do you look for?
A. Our research analysts investigate a wide range of factors to develop expectations for an individual company. These include the outlook for new products, shifts in the competitive landscape, changes in executive management, and trends in the company’s balance sheet. Our analysts use these inputs, as well as others, to develop proprietary projections for each company’s near-term earnings, intermediate-term EPS [earnings per share*] growth rate, and long-term earnings potential.
Q. Does the focus on consistent dividend growers lead you to some sectors more than others?
A. Yes, there are more consistent dividend growers in the consumer staple and industrial sectors, so those sectors have a larger weighting in our portfolio than they have in the S&P 500® Index.1
Q. Are there sectors you will tend to hold less of?
A. Yes, there are relatively few information technology companies that pass the 10 years of dividend growth threshold, so we will have less weighting there than in the S&P 500. But that can change if more tech companies are successful in achieving a sustained record of dividend growth.
Q. What do you believe will be the biggest factor in the performance of the Fund?
A. Over time, we would expect that the majority of the value added over and above the benchmark index would be the result of stock selection that pinpoints when attractive stocks are overvalued and when they’re undervalued.
Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. The Lord Abbett Calibrated Dividend Growth Fund invests primarily in equity securities of large and mid-sized companies that have a history of growing their dividends, but there is no guarantee that a company will pay a dividend. The value of investments in equity securities will fluctuate in response to general economic conditions and to changes in the prospects of particular companies and/or sectors in the economy. If the Fund’s fundamental research and quantitative analysis fail to produce the intended result, the Fund may suffer losses or underperform its benchmark or other funds with the same investment objective or similar strategies, even in a rising market. The Fund changed its investment strategy on September 27, 2012, and, therefore, the Fund performance history under the new strategy at this time is very limited. The Fund’s performance achieved during its initial period of investment operation may not be replicated over longer periods and may not be indicative of how the Fund will perform in the future.
Effective September 27, 2012, the Lord Abbett Capital Structure Fund changed its name to Lord Abbett Calibrated Dividend Growth Fund, and the Fund transitioned its investment approach from investing in a mix of equity and fixed income securities to a domestic dividend oriented equity strategy.
Dividends are not guaranteed and may be increased, decreased, or suspended altogether at the discretion of the issuing company.
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