Investment Philosophy

The First Eagle Overseas Fund’s philosophy reflects the teachings of Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett. We believe there is a persistent market failure to recognize a company’s “intrinsic value.” The Fund attempts to exploit this failure on behalf of our investors through a bottom-up, fundamental investment approach.

  • Flexible, Benchmark-Agnostic Approach

    The Fund has the ability to invest across asset classes, regions, sectors/industries and market-capitalization ranges, without regard to a benchmark.

  • Focus on Absolute Returns

    We attempt to avoid the permanent impairment of capital and generate long-term positive absolute returns across market cycles.

  • Seeks To Provide Downside Mitigation

    Our attempts to avoid the permanent loss of capital result in a portfolio that has exposure to non-US equities purchased with what we believe to be a “margin of safety” in price.

Our Process

The fundamental research process has remained constant since the inception of the Fund. The Fund looks for opportunities in companies that have temporarily disappointed investors; industries in turmoil or out of favor; and countries in economic downturns or overlooked by the market.

The investment process involves the following steps:

  • 01

    Analyze, Understand Business Models

    Thoroughly understand a company and the market in which it operates. Among other critical factors, the team’s document-driven analysis examines:

    • A company’s market share
    • The nature of its products and its business contingencies
  • 02

    Recast Financial Statements

    Financial statements are recast because:

    • Conservative accounting practices can mask the true earnings power of a company
    • In our view, accounting practices are sometimes too liberal

     

    Our goal is to uncover a company’s true economic earnings using only demonstrated results.

  • 03

    Calculate Intrinsic Value

    The team places great emphasis on:

    • Balance sheet valuation (such as Enterprise Value to Asset Replacement Value)
    • Cash flow valuation (such as EV/EBIT)

     

    Investments are made based on significant discounts to what is believed to be a company’s intrinsic value.

  • 04

    Typically Invest for the Long Term

    The team typically seeks a discount to what they believe is a company’s intrinsic value

    • They seek further downside mitigation by determining a “margin of safety” in each holding
    • This “margin of safety” is viewed as a form of risk mitigation against uncertainty in a fundamentally unknowable future.

The Overseas Fund may also invest in non-equity securities in an attempt to help preserve purchasing power. These include:

  • Gold bullion
  • Corporate bonds (senior or subordinated bonds, convertible bonds)
  • Cash and cash equivalents (commercial paper)

Growth of $10K

Select Benchmarks

Source: FactSet; data as of Dec 31, 2022.

  1. This chart illustrates a hypothetical investment in Class A shares without the effect of sales charges and assumes all distributions have been reinvested and if a sales charge was included values would be lower. Date selected assumes purchase at month end.

  1. Disclosures

  2. Overseas Fund Inception dates: A Shares 08/31/1993, C Shares 06/05/2000, I Shares 07/31/1998, R3 Shares 05/01/2018, R4 Shares 01/17/2018, R5 Shares 03/11/2019, R6 Shares 03/01/2017.

  3. The average annual returns shown above are historical and reflect changes in share price, reinvested dividends and are net of expenses. Investment results and the principal value of an investment will vary.

  4. Returns for periods less than one year are not annualized.

  5. The average annual returns for Class A Shares “with sales charge” performance gives effect to the deduction of the maximum sales charge of 3.75% for periods prior to March 1, 2000 and of 5.00% thereafter.

  6. The average annual returns for Class C Shares reflect a CDSC (contingent deferred sales charge) of 1.00% in the year-to-date and first year only.

  7. Performance information for Class I Shares is without the effect of sales charges and assumes all distributions have been reinvested and if a sales charge was included values would be lower. Had fees not been waived and/or expenses reimbursed, the performance would have been lower. Class A and C Shares have maximum sales charges of 5.00% and 1.00% respectively, and 12b-1 fees, which reduce performance.

  8. Class I Shares require $1MM minimum investment and are offered without sales charge. There is no minimum subsequent investment amount for Class I Shares.

  9. Class R Shares are offered without sales charge.

  10. The annual expense ratio is based on expenses incurred by The Fund, as stated in the most recent prospectus.

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Focus on Absolute Returns