WSA Advantage
In the simplest terms, Wall Street Associates is characterized as a growth manager that employs an active, bottom-up investment philosophy. Our investment strategies are generally suitable for investors with long-term time horizons and moderate-to-above-moderate risk and return objectives. The majority of our clients are institutional investors seeking to enhance the total return of a diversified portfolio through an allocation to accelerating growth securities. Our product offerings are managed to meet a matched investment objective, to maximize long-term capital appreciation.
Differentiating characteristics of Wall Street Associates include:
Style Consistency
Our vast experience in micro, small, and mid cap growth investing, coupled our long-standing commitment to our growth investment philosophy, has produced a high degree of style consistency and excellent long-term investment results throughout the market cycle.
100% Employee Ownership
At Wall Street Associates, broad-based employee ownership strategically aligns the firm with the long-term investment interests of our clients. Employee ownership is represented within many areas of the firm's operation and includes eight members of our ten-member investment team. Further, Wall Street Associates is not affiliated with any other organization.
Entrepreneurial Environment
Our size and structure provide the benefits of an entrepreneurial business unencumbered by layers of management and lengthy approval processes. Within this culture, investment team members work collaboratively together everyday, sharing work space and resources with one another in a floor plan that is undivided by walls and centered around our trading desk. In this dynamic environment, process enhancements, research findings and investment ideas are openly examined and efficiently implemented.
Commitment to the U.S. Micro, Small, and Mid Cap Growth Market
Since inception, we have been focused exclusively on investment in lesser capitalization U.S. companies. This dedication directly reflects our belief in the tremendous potential for investments leveraged to the greatest stages of growth in a company and/or industry's lifecycle. We believe this commitment has facilitated the successful development of portfolio management processes geared specifically toward our investment specialty.
Commitment to Our Growth Equity Philosophy and Discipline
Wall Street Associates' growth equity philosophy, identically applied within each of our investment products, has been the cornerstone of the firm since its inception in 1987. It is our belief that the path to investment performance success is found through disciplined adherence to our investment philosophy while continually seeking new ways to enhance its application.
Integrated Team Management
Investment team members specialize in specific sectors and industries within the economy and leverage highly developed industry-specific knowledge and analysis toward selecting the best available companies for each of our products. Supporting the integration of this team dynamic, investment professionals are compensated based on how the investment team performs as a whole, firmly aligned with the interests of our clients.
Process & Product Synergy
With investment team members specializing in certain sectors and industries (as opposed to products), discovered growth themes are actively deployed across each of our product offerings. This model provides investment team members a continuously unfolding research perspective in which coverage begins with initial discovery and continues uninterrupted throughout a company's life cycle. Through this structure, thriving holdings migrate naturally from our Micro Cap Growth strategy into our Small-Micro and Small-Mid Cap Growth offerings and eventually into our Mid Cap Growth strategy (see example below).
Early Discovery
Our research on companies in the initial phases of growth provides an unparalleled view into their ultimate potential for growth. Subsequent, ongoing research of existing holdings continually enriches our understanding of each company and its competitive positioning.
Experienced and Tenured Staff
Our investment team's extensive experience in managing smaller capitalization U.S. growth portfolios is paramount to Wall Street Associates' success. Wall Street Associates' investment team averages 20 years of experience, with our two founding principals having managed lesser cap portfolios together for over 30 years. Investment team members are also notable for their dedication to our organization, averaging nearly 10 years' commitment to the firm. Marketing, client service, operations, and administrative personnel also bring a wealth of experience, averaging over 15 years in the industry and more than 10 years with Wall Street Associates.