PORTFOLIO SPOTLIGHT
Manager John Hillenbrand Age 56
2024 INDEPENDENT BROKER-DEALER REVIEW AND RANKING
The Results Are In
SPONSORED BY
Professional Background As a co-chief investment officer , he is responsible for oversight of investment team resources , investment processes , performance and risk . As head of multi-asset strategies and co-head of convertible strategies , he manages investment team members and has portfolio management responsibilities for those investment verticals . He is also a member of the Calamos investment committee . Before joining Calamos , he served as an equity research analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston and ABN AMRO . He also served as an account manager in the business credit group at Continental Bank .
Outside Interests He and his family love to travel . They like to visit national parks , and do a lot of hiking .
The portfolio managers and other research team members combine top-down analysis with bottom-up fundamental research . The top-down approach looks at macroeconomic factors such as inflation , interest rates , fiscal and monetary policies , consumer spending , and how businesses are performing .
The portfolio managers and other research team members combine top-down analysis with bottom-up fundamental research .
The team also seeks to identify themes that can drive growth for specific industries and companies . These can range from multi-decade secular growth trends to shorter-term cyclical tailwinds . “ That gives us a broad view about how much equity sensitivity we want , how aggressive or defensive we want to be ,” Hillenbrand says .
From there they take a bottom-up approach to zero in on companies with improving fundamentals and attractive valuations . They look at balance sheets , management teams and competitive positioning to assess the value of businesses . “ High margins and improved capital efficiencies are catalysts in almost any market ,” Hillenbrand says .
After finding the right companies , Hillenbrand says the team next looks at their capital structures to figure out whether to hold their equity , fixed income or convertibles ( if they have convertibles ). “ And we can apply an options strategy to that ,” he adds . “ Again , we ’ re trying to put some type of asymmetric risk profile into this from either a valuation or a structural standpoint .”
Calamos posits that the fund ’ s use of convertibles and options gives it more ways to navigate market , economic and interest rate cycles than traditional asset allocation funds using only stocks , bonds and cash .
Portfolio Fit
Hillenbrand notes that investors typically use his fund in a couple of different ways . One is having it be part of the core of their portfolio to give it lower-risk equity exposure . Another way is for investors to use the fund tactically when they want to take some risk off of their portfolio but still have some equity exposure .
Calamos views the Growth and Income Fund as part of a core allocation to be held over full and multiple market cycles . Doing so , the company believes , enables investors to withstand the equity market ’ s inherent volatility and avoid the temptation of market timing .
One could argue that the fund ’ s consistent long-term results lend credibility to the company ’ s assertion .
48 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2024 WWW . FA-MAG . COM