Lazard Emerging Markets Eq S Dist USD

Analyst Report
Morningstar's Take
|22/12/2023

by Chris Tate
Lazard Emerging Markets Equity’s robust team resources and the managers' willingness to stick to their valuation discipline have proved their worth long-term.

Lazard is well-versed in emerging markets. Portfolio manager and industry veteran James Donald took charge of the strategy in 2001. Though he isn’t getting any younger, Donald has added three comanagers—Rohit Chopra, Monika Shrestha, and Ganesh Ramachandran—over time to help the longevity of this tightknit team. Their four dedicated research analysts have a minimum of 25 years in the industry and 13 years at the firm. The team of eight dedicated to this strategy also leverages Lazard’s platform of 70 emerging-markets investment professionals to help scour the ranging universe for mispriced stocks. Experience is a key trait here: The team had the wherewithal to weather a period in which their contrarian nature was out of favor.

This relative value, research-driven maintains the upper hand on the average rival. It aims to find firms with above-average returns on equity selling at below-average prices, paying close attention to management quality. Over Donald’s tenure, the team has done well to deliver those attributes. That said, the team struggled for much of the second half of the 2010s to find companies with the same profitability levels at the low prices they demand. The portfolio subsequently shifted into the large-value section of the Morningstar Style Box as aggregate profitability declined. Despite the managers maintaining their valuation discipline throughout, this conviction went unrewarded, culminating in a particularly poor 2020 when the market bid up stocks like China’s technology giants beyond their comfort level.

A renaissance in performance continues to restore the strategy’s commendable long-term track record, however. Over the trailing three years to November 2023, the institutional share class’ return was 8.6 percentage points better than the MSCI Emerging Markets Index's annually. Over Donald’s tenure, it has outpaced the benchmark by 80 basis points annually since November 2001.

It gives us confidence this return to form can be sustained for the long term.
 
Morningstar Medalist Rating™Patience has been rewarded.
To find out how Morningstar rates a fund click here.
Morningstar Pillars
PeopleAbove Average
ParentAbove Average
ProcessAbove Average
 
Morningstar Medalist RatingMorningstar assigns the Medalist Rating to funds that are qualitatively and quantitatively assessed through manager research and algorithmic processes. The assessment turns on three key “pillars” – People, Process, and Parent – that yield an estimate of how well a fund will perform before fees but after adjusting for risk.
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