United StatesPerformance and Portfolio Update
- The Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Leadership Fund performed in line with the MSCI World Index (World Index) in the third quarter.
- Six out of 11 sectors produced positive relative performance for the Fund compared to the World Index in the quarter. Fund holdings and overweight allocations in defensive sectors, notably Consumer Staples and Utilities, added to relative return, driven by strong results from Kellogg, Hershey, Estee Lauder, Sempra Energy and American Water Works.
- The Fund’s relative performance during the quarter was driven by holdings and an underweight allocation in Health Care. In addition, performance benefited from the Fund’s large underweight allocation in Energy, as the sector lagged market performance considerably.
- Conversely, the Fund’s holdings in Consumer Discretionary detracted from relative return during the period, led by poor results from Ulta Beauty, Tapestry and Kering. In addition, holdings in Communication Services and Financials performed relatively poorly, notably CNP Assurances and Viacom.
- From a regional perspective, North America added the most to relative return, while the European and Pacific regions detracted from relative performance. In North America, Canadian and US holdings produced positive relative performance. Within Europe, France and Sweden detracted the most from relative performance. In the Pacific region, the Fund’s significant underweight to Japan — no Japanese companies rank in the top 400 companies in the world based on our gender leadership criteria — detracted from relative performance.
- Since June 2014, when the Fund adopted a strategic beta strategy, the Fund has outperformed the MSCI World Index. A closer look at performance attribution over this time period, illustrated in the chart below, indicates that the Fund’s overweight to the highest-rated quartile of companies within the World Index based on gender-diverse leadership has made the greatest contribution to the Fund’s relative outperformance, along with the Fund’s significant underweight to the bottom two quartiles of companies with less gender-diverse leadership.
Performance(as of 9/30/19) | Returns (%) | Average Annual Returns (%) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-Month | Quarter | YTD | 1 Year | 3 Year | 5 Year | 10 Year | Since Reorg1 | |
| Pax Ellevate Global Women's Index Fund - Investor Class | 2.62 | 0.51 | 18.71 | 3.44 | 11.19 | 7.83 | 8.22 | 7.23 |
| Pax Ellevate Global Women's Index Fund - Institutional Class | 2.61 | 0.54 | 18.94 | 3.65 | 11.45 | 8.09 | 8.49 | 7.49 |
| Impax Global Women's Leadership (Net) Index | 2.08 | 1.10 | 18.29 | 4.73 | 11.56 | 8.40 | -- | 7.87 |
| MSCI World (Net) Index | 2.13 | 0.53 | 17.61 | 1.83 | 10.21 | 7.18 | 9.01 | 6.61 |
| Lipper Global Multi-Cap Core Funds Index | 2.27 | -0.21 | 14.65 | -0.22 | 8.63 | 6.25 | 8.66 | 5.54 |
Performance data quoted represent past performance, which does not guarantee future results. Investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted. To obtain performance for the most recent month-end, call 800.767.1729 or visit paxstaging.wpengine.com
Figures include reinvested dividends, capital gains distributions and changes in principal value.
1Since Reorganization date is 6/4/2014.
Inception of Institutional Class shares is April 19, 2006. The performance information shown for Institutional Class shares represents the performance of the Retail Class shares of the earlier acquired Women’s Equity Fund shares for the period prior to Institutional Class inception. Expenses have not been adjusted to reflect the expenses allocable to Institutional Class shares or to reflect any differences in expenses between the earlier acquired Women’s Equity Fund and the Fund. If such expense adjustments and allocable expenses were reflected, the returns would be higher than those shown. Institutional Class inception date return since April 19, 2006, is 5.06% (annualized).
Total annual Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Leadership Fund operating expenses, gross of any fee waivers or reimbursements, for Institutional Class and Investor Class shares are 0.56% and 0.81% respectively as of the 5/1/2019 prospectus. The management fee is a unified fee that includes all of the operating costs and expenses of the Fund (other than taxes, charges of governmental agencies, interest, brokerage commissions incurred in connection with portfolio transactions, distribution and/or service fees payable under a plan pursuant to Rule 12b-1 under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and extraordinary expenses), including accounting expenses, administrator, transfer agent and custodian fees, Fund legal fees and other expenses. (For this purpose, Impax Asset Management LLC does not consider acquired fund fees and expenses to be operating costs and expenses of the Fund.)
Performance AttributionGender Rank Quartiles:(as of 9/30/19) Average Weight (%) vs. MSCI World Index | Since Re-Org (63 Months) Cumulative Gross Relative Return (%) vs. MSCI World Index |
|---|---|
 |  |
A lower Impax gender rank indicates a higher ranking — 1 is highest and 100 is lowest. Attribution is based on daily gross holdings-based results, which does not include fund expenses, trading costs, etc. The total cumulative gross return for the fund was 52.61% vs. 38.42% for MSCI World. Other not-rated securities and cash were excluded from both charts: Fund weight 4.55% vs. World Index weight: 0.29% and Fund’s gross relative return: -0.23%. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Portfolio Characteristics(as of 9/30/19) | Fund | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Market Cap (weighted avg.)∱ | $117,400M | $173,011M |
| Forward Price/Earnings∼ | 15.92 | 16.70 |
| ROE∘ | 23.24 | 18.23 |
| Beta∞ | 0.93 | 1.00 |
| Number of Securities | 410 | 1,647 |
Top 10 Holdings
(as of 9/30/19)
Microsoft Corp. 4.3%, Texas Instruments, Inc. 2.3%, Ulta Beauty, Inc. 2.2%, Sempra Energy 2.2%, Estee Lauder Cos, Inc., The, Class A 2.1%, Intuit, Inc. 2.1%, American Water Works Co., Inc. 2.1%, Best Buy Co., Inc. 2.1%, Wolters Kluwer NV 2.0% and Fortis, Inc. 2.0%. Holdings are subject to change.
Definitions
ƒWeighted Average is an average in which each quantity to be averaged is assigned a weight. These weightings determine the relative importance of each quantity on the average.
~Forward Price-Earnings Ratio or P/E FY1 ratio is a ratio for valuing a company that measures its current share price relative to its per-share earnings over the next 12 months.
°Return on equity (ROE) is a ratio that provides investors’ insight into how efficiently a company (or, more specifically, its management team) is managing the equity that shareholders have contributed to the company.
∞A historical Beta is used for funds with greater than two years of performance history under the same mandate. 5 Year, Beta is used. Beta reflects the sensitivity of a fund’s return to fluctuations in its benchmark; a beta for a benchmark is 1.00: A beta greater than 1.00 indicates above-average volatility and risk.
The statements and opinions expressed are those of the author as of the date of this report. All information is historical and not indicative of future results and subject to change. This information is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
PEX000848 (1/20)