Stocks and other risk assets rallied into the year-end, aided by the Federal Reserve’s third cut in interest rates, diminished trade war fears, strong labor markets and resilient consumers. The rally lifted stocks broadly, and particularly lifted those of lower-quality, less profitable and more leveraged businesses, producing headwinds for the quality-biased Ballast strategies. 2019 began Read more ➝
The quarter ending September 30 saw modest returns in U.S. mid-cap stocks while returns of small cap indexes were slightly negative. The quarter included a brief, yet sharp, period in September where value stocks outperformed their growth counterparts, leading many to wonder whether the long-awaited leadership of value stocks might be at hand. We remain in Read more ➝
Following the wild gyrations of the equity markets in late 2018 and first quarter of 2019, returns were more modest during the quarter ending June 30, 2019. Each of the Ballast Equity Management strategies exceeded its primary and secondary indexes during the quarter and we are pleased to note that the BEM Quality Value Midcap Read more ➝
Jeff Kautz and Randy Hughes co-founded Ballast Equity Management in 2016. More important to their clients may be the fact that they have invested together for over twenty years. Previously, the two worked together at Perkins Investment Management, a subsidiary of Janus Henderson Group, where Jeff held roles including Portfolio Manager, CEO and Chief Investment Read more ➝
Market Overview U.S. equity returns rebounded sharply in the first quarter of 2019. Growth stocks outperformed value stocks and smaller companies generally outperformed the stocks of large-cap companies. Within every equity style and size, low-quality stocks, as ranked by Standard & Poor’s Quality Rankings, sharply outperformed high-quality stocks. An important step in the Ballast Equity Read more ➝