Advantage

Overview
Investment Approach

Overview

Strategy Facts

Capability:	Active Fundamental Equity
Team Inception:	December 2007
Benchmark:	Russell 1000 Growth Index

Strategy Facts

Capability:	Active Fundamental Equity
Team Inception:	December 2007
Benchmark:	Russell 1000 Growth Index

Summary

Morgan Stanley Advantage seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing in high-quality established companies with capitalizations within the range of companies included in the Russell 1000 Growth Index. To help achieve its objective, the investment team seeks companies with strong brand recognition, sustainable competitive advantages, strong current free cash flow yields, and favorable returns on invested capital trends. The team focuses on long-term growth rather than short-term events, with their stock selection informed by rigorous fundamental analysis.

Investment Approach

Philosophy

Counterpoint Global believes that it may achieve value-added investment results more consistently through bottom-up analysis and qualitative judgment rather than through top-down forecasting. Additionally, the team holds that optimal stock selection is primarily a function of making long-term investments in companies with: inherent sustainable competitive advantages (such as a patent portfolio, a network or community effect, etc.); brand-name recognition; the ability to redeploy capital at high rates of return; and strong current-period free-cash-flow yield. These characteristics, in the team’s view, provide the potential for consistent long-term growth and competitive returns.

The investment team believes that the development of insights is valuable to the investment process, and guiding principles combined with intellectual and process flexibility are critical to strong decision-making in pursuit of attractive investments.

Differentiators

ALIGNED WITH CLIENTS

Counterpoint Global's long-term incentive compensation program requires investors to allocate a significant portion of deferred compensation into the portfolios they manage.

CROSS-DISCIPLINARY THINKING AND RESEARCH INTO EMERGING THEMES

Their generalist approach and disruptive change research are unique in an industry that leans toward specialization. They promote cross-disciplinary thinking where investors follow areas with distinctly different business models.

CULTURE

Counterpoint Global has a distinctive culture that encourages innovation, evolution and continued learning.

EXPERIENCED AND STABLE TEAM

The team has been managing money since 1998. They have a long-term investment horizon that promotes perspective and insight.

Investment Process

1	Idea generation
	The team generates investment ideas through an ongoing set of activities conducted individually and collaboratively, including: (i) involvement in contact networks across industries and in the investment management business; (ii) its reading network; (iii) its focus on return on investment capital and current-period free cash flow yield; (iv) team discussions; (v) the identification of patterns; (vi) conventional-valuation and coverage biases, among others; and (vii) continual research on current company holdings.
2	Bottom-up analysis and valuation
	Their quality criteria include business visibility, a diverse customer base, the sustainability of growth and low capital intensity. Valuation focuses on three- to five-year free cash flow yield and endgame, a five-year market capitalization calculation.
3	Disruptive change research
	To complement its in-depth, bottom-up research, the team’s disruptive change researcher investigates big ideas and emerging themes that may have far-reaching consequences, such as artificial intelligence and blockchain.
4	Portfolio construction and implementation
	The team’s portfolios are actively managed and built to maximize expected value. Company weightings are primarily determined by the quality of the idea and the team’s conviction. Dennis Lynch leads decision making along with the investor responsible for a company and perhaps one other investor. The team reviews factor analysis on a monthly basis in order to ensure the portfolio’s expected return is more idiosyncratic than systematic.

RISK CONSIDERATIONS

Diversification does not protect you against a loss in a particular market; however it allows you to spread that risk across various asset classes.

There is no assurance that a strategy will achieve its investment objective. Portfolios are subject to market risk, which is the possibility that the market values of securities owned by the portfolio will decline. Market values can change daily due to economic and other events (e.g. natural disasters, health crises, terrorism, conflicts and social unrest) that affect markets, countries, companies or governments. It is difficult to predict the timing, duration, and potential adverse effects (e.g. portfolio liquidity) of events. Accordingly, you can lose money investing in this strategy. Please be aware that this strategy may be subject to certain additional risks. In general, equity securities’ values also fluctuate in response to activities specific to a company. Investments in foreign markets entail special risks such as currency, political, economic, and market risks. The risks of investing in emerging market countries are greater than the risks generally associated with investments in foreign developed countries. Privately placed and restricted securities may be subject to resale restrictions as well as a lack of publicly available information, which will increase their illiquidity and could adversely affect the ability to value and sell them (liquidity risk).

This communication is only intended for and will be only distributed to persons resident in jurisdictions where such distribution or availability would not be contrary to local laws or regulations.

There is no guarantee that any investment strategy will work under all market conditions, and each investor should evaluate their ability to invest for the long-term, especially during periods of downturn in the market. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

A separately managed account may not be appropriate for all investors. Separate accounts managed according to the Strategy include a number of securities and will not necessarily track the performance of any index. Please consider the investment objectives, risks and fees of the Strategy carefully before investing. A minimum asset level is required. For important information about the investment manager, please refer to Form ADV Part 2.

Any views and opinions provided are those of the portfolio management team and are subject to change at any time due to market or economic conditions and may not necessarily come to pass. Furthermore, the views will not be updated or otherwise revised to reflect information that subsequently becomes available or circumstances existing, or changes occurring. The views expressed do not reflect the opinions of all portfolio managers at Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) or the views of the firm as a whole, and may not be reflected in all the strategies and products that the Firm offers.

All information provided has been prepared solely for information purposes and does not constitute an offer or a recommendation to buy or sell any particular security or to adopt any specific investment strategy. The information herein has not been based on a consideration of any individual investor circumstances and is not investment advice, nor should it be construed in any way as tax, accounting, legal or regulatory advice. To that end, investors should seek independent legal and financial advice, including advice as to tax consequences, before making any investment decision.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

The indexes are unmanaged and do not include any expenses, fees or sales charges. It is not possible to invest directly in an index. Any index referred to herein is the intellectual property (including registered trademarks) of the applicable licensor. Any product based on an index is in no way sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by the applicable licensor and it shall not have any liability with respect thereto.

The Russell 1000 Growth Index measures the performance of the large-cap growth segment of the U.S. equity universe. It includes those Russell 1000 companies with higher price-to-book ratios and higher forecasted growth values. The index is unmanaged and should not be considered an investment. It is not possible to invest directly in an index.

The information presented represents how the portfolio management team generally implements its investment process under normal market conditions.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management is the asset management division of Morgan Stanley.