Harding Loevner and the Opportunity in High-Quality, Growth Stocks

Global Equity Portfolio Manager Christopher Mack explains Harding Loevner’s investment philosophy and process, as well as the distinguishing features of the firm’s active approach.


This page contains mutual fund articles and articles pertaining to the adviser to the funds, Harding Loevner LP.

Performance data quoted represents past performance and does not guarantee future results. The 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 of the fund may be lower or higher than the performance quoted. Performance data current to the most recent month end may be obtained by calling (887) 435-8105, or visiting www.hardingloevnerfunds.com. Standardized performance for all Portfolios and links to their respective returns as compared to their benchmarks are available on each funds' webpage: Global Equity Portfolio Advisor Class, Global Equity Portfolio Institutional ClassGlobal Equity Research Portfolio Institutional ClassInternational Equity Portfolio Investor ClassInternational Equity Portfolio Institutional ClassInternational Equity Research Portfolio Institutional ClassInternational Small Companies Portfolio Investor ClassInternational Small Companies Institutional Class, Emerging Markets Portfolio Advisor ClassEmerging Markets Portfolio Institutional ClassEmerging Markets Research Portfolio Institutional ClassFrontier Emerging Markets Investor Class, Frontier Emerging Markets Institutional ClassChinese Equity Institutional Class. Although a fund is no-load, management fees and other expenses will apply. Please refer to the Prospectus for further details.

References to other mutual funds should not be interpreted as an offer of these securities.

Mutual fund investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible. Investments in foreign securities involve greater volatility and political, economic, and currency risks and differences in accounting methods. Investments in emerging markets countries involve greater risks, such as immature economic structures, national policies restricting investments by foreigners, and different legal systems. Economic and political instability may cause larger price changes in emerging markets securities than other foreign securities. Such risks may be magnified with respect to securities of issuers in frontier emerging markets. The portfolio can have significant concentration in a single industry thereby making the portfolio vulnerable to factors affecting the industry. Investment opportunities in frontier markets may be concentrated in the banking industry. Investments in debt securities typically decrease in value when interest rates rise. This risk is usually greater for longer-term debt securities. Investments in lower rated and non-rated securities present a greater risk of loss to principal and interest than higher-rated securities. Investments in smaller companies involve additional risks such as limited liquidity and greater volatility.

Fund holdings and sector allocations are subject to change and should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Current and future holdings are subject to risk. The ten largest holdings for each Portfolio as of the most recent quarter-end can be obtained by clicking the following links: Global Equity PortfolioGlobal Equity Research PortfolioInternational Equity Portfolio, International Developed Markets Equity Portfolio, International Equity Research PortfolioInternational Small Companies PortfolioEmerging Markets Portfolio, Emerging Markets ex China Portfolio, Emerging Markets Research PortfolioFrontier Emerging Markets PortfolioChinese Equity Portfolio.

Diversification does not assure a profit nor protect against loss in a declining market.

Earnings growth is not a measure of the funds future performance.

Active investing has higher management fees because of the manager’s increased level of involvement while passive investing has lower management and operating fees. Investing in both actively and passively managed mutual funds involves risk and principal loss is possible. Both actively and passively managed mutual funds generally have daily liquidity. There are no guarantees regarding the performance of actively and passively managed mutual funds. Actively managed mutual funds may have higher portfolio turnover than passively managed funds. Excessive turnover can limit returns and can incur capital gains.

Alpha: represents two things- a measure of performance on a risk-adjusted basis and the abnormal rate of return on a security or portfolio in excess of what would be predicted by an equilibrium model like the capital asset pricing model (CAPM).

Average Weighted Market Capitalization: the product of a security's price & the number of shares outstanding.

Basis points: a common measurement used chiefly for interest rates and other percentages in finance. A basis point is one hundredth of one percent.

Book Value Growth: a measure of how the stock’s book value per share (BVPS) has grown over the last five years.

Cash Flow: a measure of the cash generating capability of a company calculated by adding non-cash charges (e.g. depreciation) and interest expense to pretax income.

Correlation: the extent to which the vales of different types of investments move in tandem with one another in response to changing economic and market conditions.

Debt to Capital Ratio: a measurement of a company's financial leverage, calculated as the company's debt divided by its total capital.

Debt to EBITDA: a measurement of a company's ability to pay off its debt. EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, and as such is a definition of cash flow. The ratio gives the approximate amount of time that would be needed for a company’s cash flow from operations to pay off all its debt.

Debt to GDP Ratio: the ratio of a country's public debt to its gross domestic product (GDP), which indicates the country's ability to pay back its debts.

Dividend Yield: the annual dividends per share divided by current price per share, expressed as a percent.

Downside Capture: a measure of the manager's performance in down markets relative to the market itself.

Duration: a measure of the sensitivity of the price -- the value of principal -- of a fixed-income investment to a change in interest rates. Duration is expressed as a number of years.

Earnings Per Share (EPS): portion of a company's profit allocated to each outstanding share of common stock.

Economies of scale: the cost advantage that arises with increased output of a product.

Equity Market capitalization/GDP ratio: A ratio used to determine whether an overall market is undervalued or overvalued. The ratio can be used to focus on specific markets, such as the U.S. market, or it can be applied to the world market depending on what values are used in the calculation.

Forward Earnings: A company's forecasted, or estimated, earnings made by analysts or by the company itself. Forward earnings differ from trailing earnings (which is the figure that is quoted more often) in that they are a projection and not a fact.

Forward Price-to-Earnings: The ratio of a current stock price over its forecasted, or estimated, earnings per share.

Free Cash Flow: A measure of financial performance that represents the cash a company generates from its business after making the expenditures necessary to maintain the company's operations.

Growth at a Reasonable Price (GARP): An equity investment strategy combining tenets of growth and value investing wherein investors look for companies that are showing consistent earnings growth above broad market levels, while excluding companies that have very high valuations.

JP Morgan Emerging Market Global Bond Index: an index designed to track a basket of bonds issued in local currencies by emerging market governments.

Maximum Drawdown: Measures the loss in any losing period during a fund's investment record. It is defined as the percent retrenchment from a fund's peak value to the fund's valley value.

Price/Book: the ratio of a firm's closing stock price & its fiscal year end book value/share.

Price/Cash Flow: a ratio used to compare a company's market value to its cash flow.

Price/Earning: the ratio of a firm's closing stock price & its trailing 12 months' earnings/share.

Price/Prospective Earnings: the reciprocal of the prospective earnings yield. The prospective earnings yield for a fund is the asset-weighted average of the prospective earnings yields of all the domestic stocks in the fund's portfolio as of the date of the portfolio. A stock's prospective earnings yield is calculated by dividing the company's estimated earnings per share for the current fiscal year by the company's month-end share price as of the portfolio date.

Price/Sales: A valuation ratio that compares a company’s stock price to its revenues.

Return on Equity (ROE): the net income divided by total common equity outstanding, expressed as a percent.

Return on Assets (ROA): an indicator of how profitable a company is relative to its total assets. ROA gives an idea as to how efficient management is at using its assets to generate earnings.

Sharpe Ratio: a measure for calculating risk-adjusted return, and this ratio has become the industry standard for such calculations.

Smart beta: defines a set of investment strategies that emphasize the use of alternative index construction rules to traditional market capitalization based indices.

Standard Deviation: the statistical measure of the degree to which an individual value in a probability distribution tends to vary from the mean of the distribution.

The Argentina Merval Index: One of the main market indicators for tracking Argentina's stock market

The Bangladesh DSE General Index tracks the performance of all companies listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange

The Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index provides a measure of the performance of the U.S. investment grade bonds market, which includes investment grade U.S. Government bonds, investment grade corporate bonds, mortgage pass-through securities and asset-backed securities that are publicly offered for sale in the United States.

The Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Investment Grade Corporate Index measures the performance of the investment grade, fixed rate taxable corporate bond market.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is a global derivatives marketplace based in Chicago.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC): an independent US federal agency that regulates the US derivatives markets, which includes futures, swaps, and certain kinds of options.

The CSI 300 Index is a market capitalization-weighted index that aims to reflect the overall performance of the 300 largest and most liquid stocks traded on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is a stock market index computed from the stock prices of 30 of the largest and most widely held public companies in the United States, designed to measure the performance of the industrial sector of the American stock market.

E-Mini: an electronically traded futures contract that is a fraction of the value of a corresponding standard futures contract, available on a wide range of indexes, commodities, and currencies.

The FTSE Emerging Markets index is part of the FTSE Global Equity Index Series (GEIS). The series includes large and mid-cap securities from advanced and secondary emerging markets and provides investors with a comprehensive means of measuring the performance of the most liquid companies in the emerging markets.

(Substantiation for the May 15, 2020 Bloomberg article) — Historical Small Cap Returns: For 20 years ended December 31, 2019, the Russell 2000 has produced annualized returns of 8.2%, compared with 6.7% for the S&P 500. Over the same period, the MSCI All-Country World ex-US Small Cap Index has returned 10.8% annualized, compared with 6.6% for MSCI’s All Country World ex-US Index.

The IHS Materials Price Index looks at global commodity price movements. These commodities include ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals, chemicals, pulp, as well as other commodities.

The IPC Mexico Index is a major stock market index which tracks the performance of leading companies listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange.

The JPX-Nikkei Index 400 tracks 400 companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange that have been selected based upon specific quantitative and qualitative criteria, including average ROE, operating profit, market capitalization, and corporate governance policies.

The Kazakhstan Stock Exchange Index Composite index weighted by market capitalization which is calculated according to prices of transactions in the most liquid shares on the KASE

The MSCI All Country World Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure equity market performance in the global developed and emerging markets.

The MSCI All Country World ex USA Index is a market-capitalization-weighted index maintained by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) and designed to provide a broad measure of stock performance throughout the world, with the exception of U.S.-based companies.

The MSCI All Country World ex US Small Cap Index is a free-float market capitalization index that is designed to measure small cap developed and emerging market equity performance. The Index consists of 48 developed and emerging market countries, and is comprised of companies that fall within a market capitalization range of USD 17-8,751 million (as of September 30, 2022).

The MSCI All Country World ex USA Value Index captures small cap securities exhibiting overall value style characteristics across developed and emerging markets countries. The value investment style characteristics for index construction are defined using three variables.

The MSCI China Index consist of a range of country, composite and non-domestic indexes for the Chinese market, intended for both international and domestic investors.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is a free-float adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure equity market performance in the global emerging markets. The Index consists of 24 emerging market countries.

The MSCI EAFE Index (Europe, Australasia, Far East) is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure developed market equity performance, excluding the US & Canada. The Index consists of 21 developed market countries.

The MSCI EAFE Small Cap Index: an equity index which captures small cap representation across Developed Markets countries* around the world, excluding the US and Canada.

Countries in the MSCI Frontier, Global Emerging and Mature (Developed) Market Indices are measured by economic development, size, liquidity and market accessibility in order to be classified as Frontier, Global Emerging and Mature (Developed) countries. Each June, MSCI communicates its conclusions on the list of countries under review and announces the new list of countries, if any, under review for potential market reclassification in the upcoming cycle.

The MSCI Frontier Emerging Markets Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index designed to measure equity market performance in all countries from the MSCI Frontier Markets Index and the lower size spectrum of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. The Index consists of 28 frontier markets and 4 emerging markets.

The MSCI Frontier Markets Index provides broad representation of the equity opportunity set across 28 countries while taking investability requirements into consideration within each market.

The MSCI Frontier Markets 100 Index aims to capture the performance of frontier markets while putting a stronger emphasis on tradability compared to the broader parent index, the MSCI Frontier Markets Index. The MSCI Frontier Markets 100 Index is limited to 100 constituents.

The MSCI Frontier Markets Investable Market Index (IMI): captures large, mid and small cap representation across Frontier Markets countries.

The MSCI Investable Market Indexes (IMI) cover all investable large-, mid- and small-cap securities across the Developed, Emerging and Frontier Markets, targeting approximately 99% of each market's free-float adjusted market capitalization.

The MSCI Japan Index is designed to measure the performance of the large and mid cap segments of the Japanese market. The index covers approximately 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalization in Japan.

The MSCI USA Index is a free float adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure large and mid-cap US equity market performance.

The MSCI World ex USA Small Cap Growth Index captures small cap securities exhibiting overall growth style characteristics across developed and emerging markets countries. The growth investment style characteristics for index construction are defined using five variables.

The NASDAQ is a global electronic marketplace for buying and selling securities, as well as the benchmark index for U.S. technology stocks.

The NCREIF Farmland Index is a quarterly time series composite return measure of investment performance of a large pool of individual agricultural properties acquired in the private market for investment purposes only.

The Nikkei 225 Index is a price-weighted index comprised of Japan's top 225 blue-chip companies traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The Nikkei is equivalent to the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index in the United States.

The Russell 2000® Index measures the performance of the small-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe. The Russell 2000 is a subset of the Russell 3000® Index representing approximately 10% of the total market capitalization of that index. It includes approximately 2000 of the smallest securities based on a combination of their market cap and current index membership.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): an independent US federal agency that enforces federal securities laws, proposes securities rules, and regulates the securities industry.

The S&P Europe 350 is an equity index covering 17 major European markets, representing approximately 70% of the region's market capitalization.

The S&P Goldman Sachs Commodity Index is a composite index of commodity sector returns representing an unleveraged, long-only investment in commodity futures that is broadly diversified across the spectrum of commodities.

The S&P 500 Index (S&P, S and P) is an unmanaged index commonly used to measure performance of US stocks.

The S&P 500 ESG Index is a broad-based, market-cap-weighted index that is designed to measure the performance of securities meeting sustainability criteria, while maintaining similar overall industry group weights as the S&P 500.

The S&P SmallCap 600 measures the small cap segment of the U.S. equity market. The index is designed to me an investable portfolio of companies that meet specific inclusion criteria to endure that they are liquid and financially viable.

The Schwab Fundamental International Large Company Index Fund seeks investment results that correspond to the total return of the Russell Fundamental Developed ex-U.S. Large Company Index. The Index measures the performance of the large company size segment by fundamental overall company scores, which are created using as the universe the companies in the Russell Developed ex-U.S. Index.

The Shanghai Composite Index is a market composite made up of all the A-shares and B-shares that trade on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The STOXX Europe 600 represents large, mid and small capitalization companies across 18 countries of the European region.

USAA Nasdaq 100 Index: matches, before fees and expenses, the performance of the stocks composing the Nasdaq-100 Index.

You cannot invest directly in an index.

Morningstar Foreign Large Growth category: These funds seek capital appreciation by investing in large international stocks that are growth-oriented. Large-cap foreign stocks have market capitalizations greater than 5 billion. Growth is defined based on high price/book and price/cash-flow ratios, relative to the MSCI EAFE Index. These funds typically will have less than 20% of assets invested in U.S. stocks. The performance for the average peer is -33.00%, 0.27%, 4.40% for one, five and ten years, respectively as of September 30, 2022. These returns are annualized.

Morningstar Foreign Large Blend category: These funds seek capital appreciation by investing in a variety of large international stocks. Large-cap foreign stocks have market capitalizations greater than $5 billion. The blend style is assigned to funds where neither growth nor value characteristics predominate. These funds typically will have less than 20% of assets invested in U.S. stocks.

Morningstar Foreign Large Value category: These funds seek capital appreciation by investing in large international stocks that are value-oriented. Large-cap foreign stocks have market capitalizations greater than $5 billion. Value is defined based on low price/book and price/cash-flow ratios, relative to the MSCI EAFE Index. These funds typically will have less than 20% of assets invested in U.S. stocks.

Morningstar Diversified Emerging Markets category: These funds tend to divide their assets among 20 or more nations, although they tend to focus on the emerging markets of Asia and Latin America rather than on those of the Middle East, Africa, or Europe. These portfolios invest predominantly in emerging market equities, but some funds also invest in both equities and fixed income investments from emerging markets. Morningstar Analyst Rating is not a credit or risk rating. It is a subjective evaluation performed by the mutual fund analysts of Morningstar, Inc. Morningstar evaluates funds based on five key pillars, which are process, performance, people, parent, and price. Morningstar's analysts use this five pillar evaluation to identify funds they believe are more likely to outperform over the long term on a risk-adjusted basis. Analysts consider quantitative and qualitative factors in their research, and the weighting of each pillar may vary. The Analyst Rating ultimately reflects the analyst's overall assessment and is overseen by Morningstar's Analyst Rating Committee. The approach serves not as a formula but as a framework to ensure consistency across Morningstar's global coverage universe. The performance for the average peer is -28.69%, -1.79%, 1.17% for one, five and ten years, respectively as of September 30, 2022. These returns are annualized.

Morningstar Global Large Stock: an international fund having more than 20% of stocks invested in the United States. The performance for the average peer is -31.09%, 4.88%, 8.07% for one, five and ten years, respectively as of September 30, 2022. These returns are annualized.

The Analyst Rating scale ranges from Gold to Negative, with Gold being the highest rating and Negative being the lowest rating. A fund with a "Gold" rating distinguishes itself across the five pillars and has garnered the analysts' highest level of conviction. A fund with a 'Silver' rating has notable advantages across several, but perhaps not all, of the five pillars-strengths that give the analysts a high level of conviction. A "Bronze"- rated fund has advantages that outweigh the disadvantages across the five pillars, with sufficient level of analyst conviction to warrant a positive rating. A fund with a 'Neutral' rating isn't seriously flawed across the five pillars, nor does it distinguish itself very positively. A "Negative" rated fund is flawed in at least one if not more pillars and is considered an inferior offering to its peers. Analyst Ratings are reevaluated at least every 14 months. For more detailed information about Morningstar's Analyst Rating, including its methodology, please go to www.morningstar.com/content/dam/marketing/shared/research/methodology/813568-QuantRatingForFundsMethodolgy.pdf.

Morningstar Analyst Rating (i) should not be used as the sole basis in evaluating a fund, (ii) involves unknown risks and uncertainties which may cause Analyst expectations not to occur or to differ significantly from what they expected, and (iii) should not be considered an offer or solicitation to buy or sell the fund.

The Morningstar Analyst Rating should not be used as the sole basis in evaluating a mutual fund. Morningstar Analyst Ratings are based on Morningstar's current expectations about future events; therefore, in no way does Morningstar represent ratings as a guarantee nor should they be viewed by an investor as such. Morningstar Analyst Ratings involve unknown risks and uncertainties which may cause Morningstar's expectations not to occur or to differ significantly from what we expected.

© 2022 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.

For each fund with at least a three-year history, Morningstar calculates a Morningstar Rating TM (based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a fund's monthly performance, including the effects of sales charges, loads, and redemption fees), placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of funds in each 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. (Each share class is counted as a fraction of one fund within this scale and rated separately, which may cause slight variations in the distribution percentages.) The Overall Morningstar Rating for a fund is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five- and ten-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. HLEMX was rated against the following numbers of U.S. domiciled Diversified Emerging Markets funds over the following time periods: 723 funds in the last three years as well as overall, 642 funds in the last five years, and 371 funds in the last ten years. With respect to these Diversified Emerging Markets funds, HLEMX received a Morningstar Rating of 2 stars overall, and 1 star, 1 star, and 2 stars for the three-, five-, and ten-year periods respectively. These ratings are as of September 30, 2022.

Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.

The Harding Loevner Funds are distributed by Quasar Distributors, LLC.