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Wasatch Micro Cap Fund

Ticker WGICX
NAV As of 12/08/23 $6.30
Daily Change As of 12/08/23 $0.05 / 0.80%
Wasatch Micro Cap Fund
Ticker WGICX
NAV $6.30
Daily Change $0.05 / 0.80%
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Fund Overview

Objective

Long-term growth of capital

Highlights
  • Capitalize on an inefficient, alpha-rich segment of the market
  • Truly active, fundamental, bottom-up investment approach
  • Blend of high growth, core growth, and fallen angel micro-cap stocks
Investment Approach

We use a bottom-up approach that seeks to identify companies with outstanding long-term growth potential. We look for the following types of companies:

  • High growth: companies with minimum annual earnings growth of 20%
  • Core growth: high-quality, stable growing companies
  • Fallen angels: growth companies that have suffered a temporary setback

Primarily invests in companies with market caps of less than $1.5 billion at the time of purchase

Approximately 50-80 positions

Fund Managers
Ken Korngiebel Ken Korngiebel Lead Portfolio Manager
6 years on fund
8 years at wasatch
Natalie Pesqué Natalie Pesqué Portfolio Manager
1 year on fund
8 years at wasatch
7 Cumulative PM years on fund

The micro-cap universe is big, diverse and less efficient—a great place for stock picking. Our extensive experience in this universe is critical in our search for future stars.”

—Ken Korngiebel, Lead Portfolio Manager

Performance

Total Returns AS OF 09/30/23 AS OF 11/30/23
Quarter-End Month-end
1 Month
3 Month
ytd
1 yr
3 yr
5 yr
10 yr
Since
Inception
Micro Cap Fund
10.67%
-7.69%
9.48%
3.38%
-8.71%
7.37%
9.35%
14.50%
Russell Microcap® Growth Index
11.08%
-5.98%
-4.02%
-8.06%
-9.71%
0.50%
2.64%
N/A
Russell Microcap® Index
9.47%
-4.91%
-4.33%
-8.41%
-1.36%
3.02%
4.61%
N/A

Returns for periods greater than one year are annualized. The performance data quoted represents past performance. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Current performance may be lower or higher than the data quoted. Investment returns and principal value will fluctuate and shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. The Advisor may absorb certain expenses, leading to higher total shareholder returns. Wasatch Funds will deduct a 2% redemption fee on Fund shares held 60 days or less. Performance data does not reflect this redemption fee or taxes. Total Expense Ratio: Institutional Class 1.59% The Advisor has contractually agreed to limit certain expenses to 1.60% through at least 1/31/2024.

Performance for the Institutional Class prior to 1/31/2020 is based on the performance of the Investor Class.

Growth of Hypothetical Investment 09/30/13 to 09/30/23
Micro Cap Fund
Russell Microcap® Growth Index

The hypothetical chart does not reflect the deduction of fees, sales charges, or taxes that you would pay on fund distributions or the redemption of fund shares.

Calendar Year Returns (%) As of 12/31/22
Micro Cap Fund
Russell Microcap® Growth Index

Portfolio

Characteristics AS OF 09/30/23
Fund
Index
Number of Holdings
79
837
Average Market Cap
($ Weighted)
$1.45B
$725M
Median Market Cap
$824M
$161M
EPS Growth (%, est. 5 yr)
24
16
P/E (Forward)
21
14
Portfolio Turnover (%)
56.58
N/A
Active Share (%)
93
N/A
Performance Statistics AS OF 09/30/23
5 yr
Alpha
6.66
Beta
0.91
R-Squared
0.88
Standard Deviation
26.57
Upside Capture
99.55
Downside Capture
91.87
Top 10 Holdings AS OF 09/30/23
Company
% of Net Assets
Construction Partners, Inc. Class A
3.3%
Esquire Financial Holdings, Inc.
3.1%
Kadant, Inc.
3.0%
Transcat, Inc.
2.9%
Addus HomeCare Corp.
2.9%
XPEL, Inc.
2.6%
ICF International, Inc.
2.5%
DMC Global, Inc.
2.4%
Agilysys, Inc.
2.4%
Veeco Instruments, Inc.
2.4%
79 Number of holdings
93% Active share
Sector Allocation AS OF 09/30/23
Sector
Fund
Index
Information Technology
26.6 %
16.9 %
Industrials
24.2 %
15.0 %
Health Care
15.3 %
35.2 %
Consumer Discretionary
13.9 %
10.1 %
Financials
11.0 %
8.2 %
Consumer Staples
2.8 %
2.6 %
Energy
2.4 %
4.0 %
Communication Services
0.8 %
2.5 %
Materials
0.0 %
3.1 %
Utilities
0.0 %
1.4 %
Real Estate
0.0 %
1.2 %

Weights are calculated as a percentage of net assets including cash & cash equivalents

Country Allocation AS OF 09/30/23
Fund (%)
Developed
97%
United States
90.4%
Israel
5.2%
Canada
1.4%

Weights are calculated as a percentage of net assets including cash & cash equivalents

90.4% United States

Commentary & Literature

News & Updates

After a Rough Year, Do Small-Caps Deserve a Closer Look?

January 13, 2023

Equity markets sold off broadly in 2022, but the pain was particularly…

Read More >

Market Scout – Valuations and Stock-Price Trends May Forecast a Parting of Clouds in 2023

January 10, 2023

Equity markets sold off broadly in 2022, but pain was particularly acute…

Read More >

Wasatch Wins Four 2022 Lipper Fund Awards

March 10, 2022

Wasatch Global Investors announced today that it has received four 2022 Refinitiv…

Read More >

Distributions

Record Date
Payable Date
Income
Short-Term Gain
Long-Term Gain
Total Per Share
Reinvest Price
12/15/21
12/16/21
--
$ 0.999664
$ 1.897454
$ 2.897118
$ 8.790000
12/16/20
12/17/20
--
--
$ 0.674552
$ 0.674552
$ 11.740000
Historical Distributions and NAVs Select start and end dates
to:

Important Disclosures

Investing in small or micro cap funds can be more volatile and loss of principal could be greater than investing in large cap or more diversified funds.  Investing in foreign securities, especially in emerging and frontier markets, entails special risks, such as currency fluctuations and political uncertainties, which are described in more detail in the prospectus.

The Russell Microcap Growth TR Index is an unmanaged total return index measuring the performance of the microcap growth segment of the US equity market. The Index commenced operations after the Fund.

The Russell Microcap TR Index is an unmanaged total return index of the smallest 1,000 securities in the small cap Russell 2000 Index and the next smallest 1,000 companies based on a ranking of U.S. equities by market capitalization. The Index commenced operations after the Fund.

The Fund has been developed solely by Wasatch Global Investors. The Fund is not in any way connected to or sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by the London Stock Exchange Group plc and its group undertakings (collectively, the “LSE Group”). FTSE Russell is a trading name of certain of the LSE Group companies. All rights in the Russell Indices vest in the relevant LSE Group company which owns the Index. Russell ® is a trademark of the relevant LSE Group company and used by any other LSE Group company under license. TMX® is a trademark of TSX, Inc. and used by the LSE Group under license. The Index is calculated by or on behalf of FTSE International Limited or its affiliate, agent or partner. The LSE Group does not accept any liability whatsoever to any person arising out of (a) the use of, reliance on or any error in the Index or (b) investment in or operation of the Wasatch Core Growth Fund or the suitability of the Index for the purpose to which it is being put by Wasatch Global Investors. Indexes are unmanaged, and investors cannot invest directly in an index.

You cannot invest directly in any index.

Morningstar Rating:
The Morningstar Rating for funds, or 'star rating', is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a 3-year history. Exchange–traded funds and open ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product’s monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its 3-, 5-, and 10 year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are 100% 3-year rating for 36-59 months of total returns, 60% 5 year rating/40% 3-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns, and 50% 10 year rating/30% 3-year rating/20% 3 year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10 year overall rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10 year period, the most recent 3–year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all 3 rating periods. The Fund was rated 2, 3 and 4 stars against 561, 526 and 399 funds in the category for the for the 3-, 5- and 10-year periods, respectively. The Fund’s other share class may have different performance characteristics. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. 2023 © Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information.

Est. 5-year EPS Growth %: Estimated percentage increase in earnings per share (EPS) per year of the fund’s holdings over the next 5 years. Returns are not guaranteed and may be higher or lower. Source: Wasatch and FactSet. P/E Ratio (forward and trailing): Sum of stock prices of the fund’s holdings divided by the aggregate earnings per share of those holdings for the next 12 months (forward), or past 12 months (trailing), calculated as a weighted harmonic average. P/E to Growth Rate: Forward 12-month P/E ratio divided by the estimated 5-year EPS growth rate. Portfolios with a number less than 1.0 would be considered undervalued, around 1.0 would be considered fair valued and significantly greater than 1.0 would be considered overvalued. Weighted Average Market Cap: Average market capitalization of companies held by the fund, weighted by their percentage of fund net assets. Portfolio Turnover: A measure of trading activity in a fund’s portfolio over the past 12 months expressed as a percentage of the fund’s average total assets. Alpha measures a fund’s risk/reward potential. A positive alpha means the fund outperformed the index. A negative alpha means the fund underperformed the index. Beta measures a fund’s risk in relation to the market. A beta of 0.8 means the fund’s total return is likely to move up or down 80% of the market change; 1.25 means total return is likely to move up or down 25% more than the market. R-Squared measures (from 0 to 1.0) how closely a fund’s movements are correlated with movements of its benchmark. An R-squared of 1.0 would mean that the fund’s movements are completely correlated with the movements of its benchmark. Active Share measures the difference between portfolio holdings and the benchmark. It is the sum of the absolute values of the different weightings of each holding in the fund versus each holding in the benchmark, divided by 2. Standard Deviation measures the degree to which a fund’s performance has varied from its average performance over a particular time period. The greater the standard deviation, the greater a fund’s volatility (risk). Upside Capture explains how well a fund performs in time periods where the benchmark’s returns are greater than zero. Downside Capture explains how well a fund performs in time periods where the benchmark’s returns are less than zero.

Country Allocation is defined by the MSCI Country Classification Standard and may differ from the economic country classification used to determine qualifying investments.

Fund holdings are subject to risks and may change at any time. References to specific securities should not be construed as recommendations by the Fund or its Advisor.

Wasatch Funds are distributed by ALPS Distributors, Inc.

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