Investment philosophy

Advantus is committed to achieving returns that consistently outperform your benchmark, and delivering performance that ranks high within peer groups. Our goal is to provide you with returns that are superior on a risk-adjusted basis.

To achieve that goal, we use a bottom-up investment process that relies on intensive investment research, demanding hard work, perseverance and a willingness to dig through data. We mine public and proprietary databases and follow it up with an exhaustive qualitative review of management and, often, on-site visits.

Our investment processes are based on the following beliefs:

• The financial markets are inefficient and subject to significant security pricing trends that are difficult to identify; these trends cause individual securities to be undervalued and often create tremendous opportunities for astute investors.
• A bottom-up, fundamental process that focuses on individual security selection is the best way to exploit inefficiencies and generate more consistent excess returns over the long term.
• Investment professionals with expertise in specific market sectors who focus on fundamentals can recognize the true value of securities and generate consistent, risk-adjusted returns.
• A focus on each security's intrinsic, quantifiable factors limits the variance of expected outcomes, providing downside protection and consistent risk-adjusted returns over the long term.