“Touchstone Sands Capital Institutional Growth Fund (CISGX)—Sands Capital believes that over time stock prices reflect the earnings growth of an underlying business. Their deep and experienced research team is dedicated to identifying a relatively small number of exceptional growth businesses that they expect to own for many years. Research is focused on finding industry- leading companies that have a sustainable competitive edge, enabling the company to fend off competitive pressures, while also allowing the company to maintain or grow market share.
“Evaluating and validating their fundamental thesis involves analysis of six key factors: sustainable above-average earnings growth, leadership position in a promising business space, significant competitive advantage/unique business franchise, strong management, financial strength and a rational valuation. Our highly recommended opinion of Sands is based on several factors. We continue to be extremely impressed with the quality of Sands’ investment team. We think their patient, high-conviction approach allows them to know their companies better than the competition, and also allows them to take advantage of Wall Street’s shortsightedness. While this approach can lead to very volatile short-term performance, over the long term we expect Sands to add value over a large-cap growth benchmark.”
Steve Savage, No-Load Fund Analyst, 12/10