“At Royce, our approach is to look at these businesses as a business owner would if they were going to acquire the company,” said Portfolio Manager Jim Stoeffel in his December 15, 2014 interview with The Wall Street Transcript.
“That’s the gist of the process; it’s very bottom-up, fundamentally based stock picking that focuses on smaller companies with strong balance sheets and high returns on invested capital. We are very disciplined about buying companies at what we think is the right price and selling them at the right time too, which admittedly can be tricky.”
In addition to providing an overview of his bottom-up approach, Jim also talked about his stock-selling discipline, his views on the U.S. and global economies, opportunities in small-cap technology, recent additions to Royce Low-Priced Stock Fund’s portfolio and how the Fund is being restructured, and more.
“Royce is a very collaborative environment,” said Jim. “We share meetings. We talk afterward. With Low-Priced Stock, we have a slightly more formal, collaborative process. We have three assistant portfolio managers on the Fund to drive that.”
Jim Stoeffel has 21 years of investment industry experience and joined the firm in May 2009. He received his bachelor’s degree from Washington & Lee University and his MBA from New York University.
Royce Low-Priced Stock Fund invests primarily in small-cap stocks with an average cost per share in the portfolio of less than $25. Jim Harvey, Bill Hench, and Carl Brown serve as assistant portfolio managers to the Fund.
