slow and steady wins the race - arielinvestments.com
TRANSCRIPT
SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE
The best way to beat a benchmark is not to follow it.
Our story
John Rogers started Ariel in 1983 at age 24. His original
business plan was elegantly simple–buy undervalued small and
medium-sized stocks with a proven ability to grow over the
long-term and hold them until they reach full value. The seeds
of this philosophy were planted at age 12 when John started to
receive gifts of stock from his father every birthday and every
Christmas. Initially unimpressed by the envelopes under the tree
(until the dividend checks started coming in), John’s fascination
with stocks and investing was born. When he launched Ariel,
he started a newsletter as a way to broadcast his investing ideas.
It was called The Patient Investor and its masthead featured a turtle.
While much has changed since those early days, much has stayed
the same. More than 27 years later, we still spend every day
searching for undervalued small- and medium-sized stocks that
have demonstrated an ability to grow. Our quarterly report to
our shareholders is called The Patient Investor, the masthead turtle
is now the firm logo and “slow and steady wins the race,” the
timeless lesson from Aesop’s fable, is our motto.
Patience wins.
JOHN W. ROgERS, JR.Founder, chairman & chief executive officer
Slow and steady isn’t just an idea. It’s how we invest and how we do business.
ARIEL AT A gLANCE
Ariel Investments is a Chicago-based money management firm serving individuals and institutions through our no-load mutual funds and separate account products. Since our founding in 1983, we have employed a disciplined, long-term approach to value investing–symbolized by our turtle logo and the firm’s motto of slow and steady wins
the race. Our accumulated experience has taught us that patience, focus and a team of independent thinkers are paramount to success.
Our patient investment philosophyA patient view“Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.” — Warren Buffett
Compels us to wait for the perfect pitch—differentiated companies with strong cash flows, low debt, high-quality products or services, significant barriers to entry and low reinvestment requirements
Allows us to take a long-term view and look past short-term noise with a 3-5 year time horizon in mind to be opportunistic as price dislocations arise
A focused approach“Invest within your circle of competence.” — Warren Buffett
Augments our conviction, especially during crunch time when it matters most
Leads us to isolate the key issues of importance to a company in the midst of market noise
Results in our portfolio concentration in a limited number of names and industries
A team of independent thinkers“If you buy the same stocks as everyone else, you get the same results.” — Sir John Templeton
Encourages us to buy out of favor, misunderstood and ignored stocks
Leads us to perform our own original, proprietary research
Persuades us to be benchmark agnostic with very different industry weightings
Our products
ArielMicro-Cap ArielSmallCap ArielMidCap ArielFocused
Investmentstyle Micro cap value Small cap value Mid cap value Mid/large cap value
Inception July 31, 2002 September 30, 1983 March 31, 1990 March 31, 2005
Holdings 20-40 25-40 30-45 ~20
Leadportfolio David Maley John W. Rogers, Jr. John W. Rogers, Jr. Charles K. Bobrinskoymanager(s) Timothy Fidler
200 East Randolph Drive Suite 2900
Chicago, IL 60601
312.726.0140 main800.725.0140 toll-free
312.726.7473 fax
arielinvestments.com
RIA SEP ACCTS ©1/11
For additional information, please contact:
Mellody [email protected] Krista L. Rivers, CFP®
Senior Vice PresidentDirector, Institutional Marketing & Client [email protected] gary L. RozierSenior Vice [email protected] Malik T. MurrayVice [email protected]