Style Investing Kari E. Bayer Director Senior U.S. Strategist
Defining Growth and Value Each month we monitor approximately forty different stock selection strategies. Two of the forty strategies are pure growth and pure value portfolios. The pure growth portfolio is the fifty stocks in the S&P 500 with the highest five-year projected EPS growth rates. The pure value portfolio is the fifty stocks in the S&P 500 with the highest earnings yield. The term pure is used because the portfolios are those stocks in the S&P 500 that are made up of the companies that show the most extreme values of the particular characteristic.
Pure Growth and Value Portfolios 210 190 170 150 130 Equal-weighted Relative Cumulative Performance vs. Equal- Weighted S&P 500 "Pure" Growth "Pure" Value When Growth outperforms, Value tends to underperform and vice versa. 110 90 70 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Source: Merrill Lynch Quantitative Strategy
Relative Performance of S&P/Barra Growth and Value Indices 1.8 Relative Price Performance of the S&P/Barra Growth and Value Indices 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 Source: Merrill Lynch Quantitative Strategy
Relative Performance of MLQS Growth and Value Indices 1.6 Relative Performance of the Growth Mutual Fund Index versus the Value Mutual Fund Index 1.5 1.4 1.3 1.2 1.1 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 Jan-86 Jan-87 Jan-88 Jan-89 Jan-90 Jan-91 Jan-92 Jan-93 Jan-94 Jan-95 Jan-96 Jan-97 Jan-98 Jan-99 Jan-00 Jan-01 Jan-02 Source: Merrill Lynch Quantitative Strategy
Growth Managers Growth managers are typically defined as high expectations managers who prefer to search for investments among stocks that have a proven superior track record of earnings growth. Growth stock investors usually pay a high premium to hold such stocks because the market realizes the superior qualities of the company. The assumption behind growth stock investing is that the market will continue to reward the superior grower.
Value Managers Value managers are typically defined as low-expectations managers because they tend to search for investments among stocks that are out of favor. The assumption behind value investing is that the consensus views a company overly pessimistically, and that the stock s valuation will improve once the consensus realizes its mistake. Value managers, therefore, usually search for stocks that sell below the worth of a company s assets or below the value of its future growth prospects.
Good and Bad Managers Growth: CONTRARIAN SELLERS Value: CONTRARIAN BUYERS
Defining Quality We use the S&P Common Stock Rankings to define quality. S&P ranks approximately 1500 companies based on their stability in earnings and dividends growth over the last ten years. A company with extremely stable earnings and dividends growth would be rated an A+ whereas a company in bankruptcy or reorganization would be rated a D. The rankings are A+, A, A-, B+, B, B- and C/D.
Relative Performance by Quality Relative Performance MLQS "A+" vs. "C&D" Relative Performance 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 Indices are based on S&P Common Stock Ratings. Similar to Growth and Value, High vs. Low Quality goes through cycles of out- and under-performance. 0.4 0.2 0.0 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 Source: Merrill Lynch Quantitative Strategy
Relative Performance by Size 3.0 Relative Performance of S&P 500 and Russell 2000 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 Source: Merrill Lynch Quantitative Strategy
The Importance of Profits Yr/Yr % Ch 60% 40% 20% 0% GROWTH vs. VALUE - RELATIVE PERFORMANCE AND S&P 500 EPS MOMENTUM Yr/Yr % Chg S&P 500 4-Qtr EPS MLQA Growth Fund Index vs Value Fund Index Tech Bubble disrupts Growth & Value Cycle Relative Performance 1.40 1.20 1.00 The scarcity or abundance of earnings growth drives style rotation. -20% 0.80-40% -60% 70 75 80 85 90 95 00 0.60 Source: Merrill Lynch Quantitative Strategy
The Tech Bubble Distorts Growth versus Value Investing 2000 2001 "Pure" Growth -22.4% -33.2% "Pure" Value 20.7% 24.5% MLQS Growth -12.7% -15.8% MLQS Value -4.2% -1.7% A+ Index 22.4% 2.4% C/D Index 0.1% 3.8%
High Quality Value? Proportion of High Quality Stocks in S&P/Barra Growth & Value Indices 70% 65% 60% 60% 58% 54% 54% 50% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% Composition as of 6/30/00 Composition as of 12/31/01 Composition as of 12/31/01 0% S&P/Barra Growth Source: Merrill Lynch Quantitative Strategy S&P/Barra Value
Sector Concentration of S&P/Barra Growth Index S&P Barra Growth Index By Sector (December 2001) Financials 7% Other 4% Technology 23% Industrials 12% Consumer Staples 15% Healthcare 21% Consumer Discretionary 18%
Change in Composition of SGX Change in Composition of S&P/Barra Growth Index 40.0% 35.0% 30.0% Composition as of 6/30/00 Composition as of 12/31/01 25.0% 20.0% 15.0% 10.0% 5.0% 0.0% Technology Healthcare Consumer Staples Consumer Discretionary Industrials Financials Other
Sector Concentration of S&P/Barra Value Index S&P/Barra Value Index By Sector Energy 7% Healthcare 4% Telecom 3% Staples 3% Discretionary 18% Utilities 11% Financials 16% Materials 11% Technology 13% Industrials 14%
Proportion of Sector in S&P/Barra Growth Index Proportion of Sector Residing in S&P Barra Growth Index (Data as of 12/31/01) Staples 64.7% Healthcare 66.7% Technology 43.6% Industrials 25.0% Discretionary 29.5% Telecom 15.4% Financials 13.9% Energy 0.0% Utilities 0.3% Materials 7.5% 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0%
Style Allocation Benchmarks (2/28/02) USPC Equity Allocation Large Cap Growth Large Cap Value Small Cap Growth Small Cap Value International Capital Preservation 15% 5% 10% Current Income 30% 5% 25% Income & Growth 45% 15% 20% 5% 5% Long-Term Growth 65% 15% 20% 10% 10% 10% Aggressive Growth 80% 20% 20% 15% 15% 10% U.S. Strategy Asset Allocation 50% 10% 15% 10% 10% 5%