Characteristics

  • As of Sep 30, 2024

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.

Characteristics

  • As of Sep 30, 2024

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 Sep 30, 2024.

  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, 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

  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.

Benchmark Agnostic Approach

First Eagle Fund
Show Benchmarks
Source: FactSet; data as of Sep 30, 2024.

  1. The performance data quoted herein represents past performance and does not guarantee future results. Market volatility can dramatically impact a Fund's short-term performance. Current performance may be lower or higher than figures shown. The investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed may be worth more or less than their original cost. Past performance data through the most recent month end is available on the Prices & Performance page.

Consistent Approach Seeks to Provide a Better Investor Experience

Source: FactSet; data as of Dec 31, 2023.

  1. The performance data quoted herein represents past performance and does not guarantee future results. Market volatility can dramatically impact a Fund's short-term performance. Current performance may be lower or higher than figures shown. The investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed may be worth more or less than their original cost. Past performance data through the most recent month end is available on the Prices & Performance page.

Seeking Solutions for Varying Portfolio Needs

 MSCI EAFE IndexBLENDED PORTFOLIOMSCI EAFE Index 90% / SGOVX 10%BLENDED PORTFOLIOMSCI EAFE Index 80% / 20%SGOVXBLENDED PORTFOLIOMSCI EAFE Index 70% / SGOVX 30%BLENDED PORTFOLIOMSCI EAFE Index 60% / SGOVX 40%BLENDED PORTFOLIOMSCI EAFE Index 50% / SGOVX 50%BLENDED PORTFOLIOMSCI EAFE Index 40% / SGOVX 60%BLENDED PORTFOLIOMSCI EAFE Index 30% / SGOVX 70%BLENDED PORTFOLIOMSCI EAFE Index 20% / SGOVX 80%BLENDED PORTFOLIOMSCI EAFE Index 10% / SGOVX 90%SGOVX
Cumulative Return353%412%479%552%633%723%821%929%1,048%1,177%1,318%
Max Drawdown-56.68%-54.63%-52.51%-50.29%-47.99%-45.60%-43.11%-40.52%-37.83%-35.04%-32.14%
$100K Beginning Investment$45K$51K$58K$65K$73K$82K$92K$103K$115K$128K$142K
Max Drawdown Recovery Time64 Months60 Months56 Months55 Months50 Months47 Months26 Months24 Months22 Months20 Months19 Months
Annualized Standard Deviation16.29%15.66%15.04%14.44%13.87%13.32%12.81%12.32%11.88%11.48%11.12%
Beta1.000.960.920.880.840.800.760.720.680.640.60
Alpha0.000.050.090.140.190.230.280.320.370.420.46
Sharpe Ratio0.170.200.240.280.320.360.410.460.510.560.61
Upside Capture100.00%97.06%94.12%91.19%88.27%85.36%82.45%79.55%76.66%73.78%70.90%
Downside Capture100.00%95.12%90.21%85.28%80.31%75.31%70.28%65.22%60.13%55.01%49.86%

August 1993 through December 2023

  1. The performance data quoted herein represents past performance and does not guarantee future results. Market volatility can dramatically impact a Fund's short-term performance. Current performance may be lower or higher than figures shown. The investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed may be worth more or less than their original cost. Past performance data through the most recent month end is available on the Prices & Performance page.

  1. Disclosures

  2. Overseas Fund Inception dates: A Shares 08/31/1993, C Shares 06/05/2000, I Shares 07/31/1998, 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.

  11. The Fund may invest in gold and precious metals through investment in a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Fund organized under the laws of the Cayman Islands (the “Subsidiary”). Gold Bullion and commodities include the Fund’s investment in the Subsidiary.

  1. Definitions

  2. One cannot invest directly in an index. Indices do not incur management fees or other operating expenses.

  3. MSCI World: The MSCI World Index is a widely followed, unmanaged group of stocks from 23 developed markets and is not available for purchase. The index provides total returns in U.S. dollars with net dividends reinvested.

  4. MSCI EAFE: The MSCI EAFE Index is an unmanaged total return index, reported in U.S. dollars, based on share prices and reinvested net dividends of companies from 21 countries and is not available for purchase.

  5. Standard & Poor's 500 Index: Standard & Poor's 500 Index is a widely recognized unmanaged index including a representative sample of 500 leading companies in leading sectors of the U.S. economy and is not available for purchase. Although the Standard & Poor's 500 Index focuses on the large-cap segment of the market, with approximately 80% coverage of U.S. equities, it is also considered a proxy for the total market.

  6. Standard deviation is a statistical measure of the distance a quantity is likely to be from its average value.  It is applied to the annual rate of return to measure volatility.

  7. R-Squared reflects the percentage of a fund's movements that are explained by movements in its benchmark index, showing the degree of correlation between the fund and the benchmark.

  8. Beta is a measure of the fund's volatility (risk) relative to the overall market. The higher the fund's Beta, the more the fund price is expected to change in response to a given change in the value of the market.

  9. Alpha is a measure of the Fund's excess return relative to the return of the benchmark index.

  10. Information ratio evaluates the ratio of a fund's returns above those of a benchmark against the volatility of those returns.

Growth of $10K

Select Benchmarks

Source: FactSet; data as of Sep 30, 2024.

  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.

25 Year Risk vs. Return

SGOVXMSCI EAFE IndexMSCI World IndexS&P 500 Index
Annualized Return (%)    9.23    4.61    6.23    7.78
Annualized Standard Deviation (%)   11.47   16.62   15.59   15.34
R-Square (%)   82.47  100.00   91.54   75.36
Beta    0.62    1.00    0.90    0.80
Alpha (annualized)    5.63    0.00    2.23