WA MAGAZINE JanFeb PDF A - Flipbook - Page 24
MODEL MANAGER
Cullen Opens Up to
Exchange-Traded
Portfolios
O
ne of the great separately
managed account (SMA)
managers has finally started bringing its pioneering
strategies to the ETF market.
We talked to two of the big players there
to see why what’s in these funds matters
a lot more than the envelope they come
wrapped in.
Cullen Funds, a boutique asset management firm headquartered in New
York City, has built a reputation over the
past four decades as a leading advocate
for value and dividend-based investing.
The firm’s steadfast commitment to
these principles, rooted in the teachings
of legendary value investor Benjamin
Graham, is a defining feature of its
approach. Through strategic adherence
to value investing and an emphasis on
24 | JAN/FEB 2025
disciplined execution, the team has
demonstrated consistent success even in
challenging market environments.
The firm was founded in 1983 by Jim
Cullen, whose early career as a financial advisor in the 1960s was shaped by
Graham’s focus on discipline, valuation
and consistency. Over the years, Cullen
has developed a suite of strategies that
reflect these principles, focusing on
identifying stocks with low price-toearnings ratios, stable dividends and
reliable dividend growth.
Catherine Howse, a managing director, underscores that Cullen remains
among the few pure value managers
in the large-cap space, with one of the
highest allocations to value investments
in the industry. This positioning is bolstered by the firm’s resistance to style
drift—the temptation to incorporate
growth stocks during market surges—a
discipline that reinforces its reliability
during market downturns.
The flagship U.S. High Dividend Value portfolio exemplifies the investment
ethos. The portfolio’s returns over rolling
five-year periods have consistently generated alpha, in particular outperforming the value
index in
periods when
value stocks
just weren’t
getting much
traction.
Howse
attributes
this success
to the firm’s
rigorous
screening
JIM CULLEN
processes
and long-term
perspective.
