Our portfolio had a tough first quarter, declining nearly 2% in an otherwise positive market environment. The last ten or so trading days were particularly difficult for fundamentally strong, high growth companies, a topic we explore more fully in the Market Review & Outlook section of this update.
Our goal is to outperform our primary benchmarks over a full market cycle, which has typically meant five or more years. While we have achieved this objective on a long term, net of fees basis, the stop and start nature of the economy has made attainment of this goal more elusive over the past three years.
While time will tell, we anticipate that our relative results will improve as the economic cycle finally matures and moves more convincingly into a stage of sustained expansion, marked by the hallmark signs of increased M&A and capital spending activity in lieu of the almost singular focus on dividends and stock buybacks from the corporate suite.
For details on our firm’s performance results, our investment outlook, and related disclosures, please read the attached Performance Review.