From The Royce Funds, Feb. 1, 2012.
Twenty-eleven saw disasters both natural and human. There were threats of European default, failures of political leadership, worries over recession, and the ever-present specter of staggering debt. All of these events contributed to one of the wildest years for stocks in recent memory. It seems likely that 2011 will be remembered not for the severity of its losses, which weren't nearly as bad as one might think, but for its daily drama of extreme volatility.
Capitulation: A few years ago, we wrote that markets resemble Tolstoy's families: All the happy ones are alike, and all the unhappy ones are unhappy in their own way. The past calendar year's stock market results, which place it mostly, but not entirely, in the "unhappy" category, offer a striking example. One only has to compare it to recent years of poor performance to see its singularity. In 2008, stock markets across the globe cratered as part of a global financial crisis that saw once-mighty titans of Wall Street collapse.The crisis also had the effect of worsening both a correction in housing prices and a worldwide recession. (Of course, much of the globe's current difficulties in capital markets and economies can be traced back to this event.) The crisis saw a widespread exit from stocks, with major indexes in the U.S. and elsewhere posting sizable double-digit losses for the year. Earlier in the decade, 2002 saw mostly negative results as the exploding Internet Bubble and the lingering effects of the events of 9/11 led many investors to sell equities. Results were mostly negative, but within a much larger range, depending on one's exposure to Technology and related areas.
We suspect that, unlike those of 2002 and 2008, the stock market of 2011 will be remembered not for cataclysmic events or the severity of its losses, which weren't nearly as bad as one might think, but for its daily drama of extreme volatility. The days between late April and the end of the year saw increasing numbers of investors opting to get out of equities, and stay out, which resulted in a large-scale capitulation that rivaled anything we have seen during other recent bearish periods, when results were far, far worse. This last point made the past year as fascinating as it was frustrating. Investors fled or avoided stocks for many reasons—because they lacked confidence in political leaders both here at home and abroad to deal effectively with the challenges of stimulating the economy and responsibly coping with enormous debt; because they couldn't bear the barrage of headlines with their seemingly endless parade of bad news; and because they simply ran out of patience with the daily jumps and dives of a market struggling to make sense of it all.
Absent from this list is the state of the companies themselves. We would humbly suggest that the most relevant reasons why one would choose to invest in a business—its merits as a company, its prospects and the relationship these have to its stock price—were largely, if not wholly neglected through the market's most tumultuous months. Again, this was unlike 2002, which for many Internet companies was an "Emperor's New Clothes" moment, and 2008, when the threat was systemic and fundamentals were, at least at the most tense moments, irrelevant. The disconnect between stock prices and fundamentals for many companies, including many small-caps, remains wide as we enter 2012. While this created no end of short-term disappointments for us—2011 being one of the most challenging years for The Royce Funds in our history—it has also provided ample seeding for what we hope will be a bountiful harvest in the years to come. Following a recap of 2011 performance, we will offer a more detailed explanation of our optimism below.
These single-digit declines belie the tortuous road of the year's last six months. During the third quarter, each of the aforementioned indexes suffered significant double-digit losses, with the Russell 2000 down 21.9%, the Russell 1000 falling 14.7%, the S&P 500 off 13.9% and the Nasdaq losing 12.9%. Fears of European defaults and the possibility of a double-dip recession in the U.S. were factors, though U.S. and European investors may well have been more motivated to sell based on their utter lack of confidence in the abilities of the developed world's political leaders to meet the challenges of economic stagnation and staggering government debt.
When some progress seemed to be made on these fronts, share prices rebounded through much of the fourth quarter. The bull run was dominated by an October rally just as the third-quarter downturn was primarily driven by a disastrous August and September. Each major index finished the fourth quarter with double-digit gains. Small-caps led the way in this dynamic period, gaining 15.5%, compared to a gain of 11.8% for both the Russell 1000 and S&P 500 Indexes, and 7.9% for the Nasdaq. Yet after all the Sturm und Drang in 2011—of its second half in particular—here is where the four domestic indexes wound up for the calendar year: The Russell 2000 fell 4.2%, the Russell 1000 gained 1.5%, the S&P 500 climbed 2.1%, and the Nasdaq lost 1.8%. After a year of prices leaping and crashing, the U.S. stock markets did not move much at all. Were the bullish October and the less wildly volatile months of November and December positive signs that investors were beginning to pay less attention to headlines and more to company fundamentals? We would like to think so, but this remains an open question.
The ongoing possibility of government defaults in Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain, as well as the resulting economic slowdown that gripped much of Europe, continued to weigh heavily on the minds of investors in the second half. This anxiety was reflected in the larger calendar-year losses for global, international and European indexes. The Russell Global ex-U.S. Small Cap Index finished the year down 18.7%, behind its large-cap sibling, the Russell Global ex-U.S. Large Cap Index, which declined 13.8%. Each enjoyed a modestly positive first half, up 0.8% and 4.1%, respectively, before succumbing to the same woes that afflicted the U.S. markets in the third quarter.
The Russell Global ex-U.S. Small Cap was down 19.4% and its large-cap equivalent lost 20.1% in the third quarter. So far, so close to their U.S. compeers. Yet the non-U.S. markets lagged behind considerably in the fourth quarter, with the Russell Global ex-U.S. Small Cap gaining a paltry 0.1% and its large-cap sibling climbing 3.6%. It remains to be seen whether this was a temporary phenomenon, a sign that the global economy outside the U.S. remains weak, or was evidence that the U.S. economy, for all its struggles, remains fundamentally strong on both an absolute and relative basis.
U.S. mid-cap stocks acquitted themselves well enough, though they did not lead the market in the second half as they did in the first, when the Russell Midcap Index gained 8.1%. The mid-cap index slid 18.9% in the third quarter before rebounding 12.3% in the fourth. For the year as a whole, the Russell Midcap was down 1.6%. As measured by the Russell Microcap Index, domestic micro-cap stocks continued to struggle, which was unsurprising in a market that saw investors growing less and less comfortable with risk through the end of September. After finishing the first half with a 3.1% gain, the micro-cap index declined 22.7% in the third quarter. So while its fourth-quarter gain of 13.8% was strong, it was not enough to shore up earlier losses. The Russell Microcap Index closed out 2011 with a 9.3% loss.
In our estimation, small-caps look very well-positioned to bounce back strong as part of a general upward move for equities. More specifically, some recent research has shown that high-quality small-caps, as measured by returns on invested capital (ROIC), are not only cheap on an absolute basis, but relative to their large-cap counterparts as well. There has been a lot of recent analysis devoted to showing that small-caps are statistically more expensive than large-caps, yet many of the companies that have been drawing our interest are not.
It comes as no surprise, then, that we think this is a very opportune time for active small-cap management. Historically, when returns are both highly correlated and underwhelming, inefficiencies develop that we seek to use to our long-term advantage. We are confident that active small-cap managers can generate satisfactory absolute results when returns begin to differentiate again. As we detailed in a research paper on the importance of active small-cap management, consistency, discipline and a long-term investment horizon are critical to realizing the goal of strong absolute long-term results that, as a byproduct of that effort, have also beaten small-cap benchmarks. The last several years have certainly underscored the poor track record of predictions for markets and economies, but as equity returns become less closely correlated, we see the potential for active and disciplined small-cap management to succeed.
It is also important to point out that, though daily volatility was very high, monthly returns in 2011 were not as wildly out of sync with other years as the day-to-day drama might lead one to believe. We think that we are in a new era of high daily volatility that investors will better adjust to in 2012 and beyond. More important is our belief that fundamentals are much better than the headlines; that quality will continue to be an important driver of long-term outperformance; and that non-U.S. small-caps will enjoy improved performance in the years to come.
For 1-year, 5-year and since inception returns for The Royce Funds, please see our Prices and Performance page.
This material is not authorized for distribution unless preceded or accompanied by a current prospectus. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing or sending money.
All indexes referenced are unmanaged and capitalization weighted. Russell Investment Group is the source and owner of the trademarks, service marks and copyrights related to the Russell Indexes. Russell® is a trademark of Russell Investment Group. The Russell 2000 is an index of domestic small-cap stocks that measures the performance of the 2,000 smallest publicly traded U.S. companies in the Russell 3000 Index. The Russell 1000 index is an unmanaged, capitalization-weighted index of domestic large-cap stocks. It measures the performance of the 1,000 largest publicly traded U.S. companies in the Russell 3000 Index. The Russell Midcap Index measures the performance of the mid-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe. The Russell Microcap Index includes 1,000 of the smallest securities in the small-cap Russell 2000 Index. The Russell Global ex-U.S. Small Cap Index is an index of global small-cap stocks, excluding the United States. The Russell Global ex-U.S. Large Cap Index is an index of global large-cap stocks, excluding the United States. The S&P 500 is an index of U.S. large-cap stocks selected by Standard & Poor's based on market size, liquidity and industry grouping, among other factors. The Nasdaq Composite is an index of the more than 3,000 common equities listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. The Royce Funds is a service mark of The Royce Funds.
Distributor of The Royce Fund: Royce Fund Services, Inc.
Twenty-eleven saw disasters both natural and human. There were threats of European default, failures of political leadership, worries over recession, and the ever-present specter of staggering debt. All of these events contributed to one of the wildest years for stocks in recent memory. It seems likely that 2011 will be remembered not for the severity of its losses, which weren't nearly as bad as one might think, but for its daily drama of extreme volatility.
Capitulation: A few years ago, we wrote that markets resemble Tolstoy's families: All the happy ones are alike, and all the unhappy ones are unhappy in their own way. The past calendar year's stock market results, which place it mostly, but not entirely, in the "unhappy" category, offer a striking example. One only has to compare it to recent years of poor performance to see its singularity. In 2008, stock markets across the globe cratered as part of a global financial crisis that saw once-mighty titans of Wall Street collapse.The crisis also had the effect of worsening both a correction in housing prices and a worldwide recession. (Of course, much of the globe's current difficulties in capital markets and economies can be traced back to this event.) The crisis saw a widespread exit from stocks, with major indexes in the U.S. and elsewhere posting sizable double-digit losses for the year. Earlier in the decade, 2002 saw mostly negative results as the exploding Internet Bubble and the lingering effects of the events of 9/11 led many investors to sell equities. Results were mostly negative, but within a much larger range, depending on one's exposure to Technology and related areas.
The disconnect between stock prices and fundamentals for many companies, including many small-caps in general, but especially those overseas, remains wide as we enter 2012.
We suspect that, unlike those of 2002 and 2008, the stock market of 2011 will be remembered not for cataclysmic events or the severity of its losses, which weren't nearly as bad as one might think, but for its daily drama of extreme volatility. The days between late April and the end of the year saw increasing numbers of investors opting to get out of equities, and stay out, which resulted in a large-scale capitulation that rivaled anything we have seen during other recent bearish periods, when results were far, far worse. This last point made the past year as fascinating as it was frustrating. Investors fled or avoided stocks for many reasons—because they lacked confidence in political leaders both here at home and abroad to deal effectively with the challenges of stimulating the economy and responsibly coping with enormous debt; because they couldn't bear the barrage of headlines with their seemingly endless parade of bad news; and because they simply ran out of patience with the daily jumps and dives of a market struggling to make sense of it all.
Absent from this list is the state of the companies themselves. We would humbly suggest that the most relevant reasons why one would choose to invest in a business—its merits as a company, its prospects and the relationship these have to its stock price—were largely, if not wholly neglected through the market's most tumultuous months. Again, this was unlike 2002, which for many Internet companies was an "Emperor's New Clothes" moment, and 2008, when the threat was systemic and fundamentals were, at least at the most tense moments, irrelevant. The disconnect between stock prices and fundamentals for many companies, including many small-caps, remains wide as we enter 2012. While this created no end of short-term disappointments for us—2011 being one of the most challenging years for The Royce Funds in our history—it has also provided ample seeding for what we hope will be a bountiful harvest in the years to come. Following a recap of 2011 performance, we will offer a more detailed explanation of our optimism below.
Correlation
Perhaps the most notable thing about 2011 was how little returns shifted in the U.S. markets. High volatility was the order of the day through much of the year across most of the globe and was very much in evidence between August and the end of December. However, by the time the year ended, the major U.S. indexes posted returns that felt less like a bang than a whimper. After a solidly positive first half, the small-cap Russell 2000 Index came through the wild second half with a loss of 9.8%. For the same period, its large-cap counterparts, the Russell 1000 and S&P 500 Indexes, lost less, down 4.6% and 3.7%, respectively, while the more tech-laden Nasdaq Composite declined 6.1%.These single-digit declines belie the tortuous road of the year's last six months. During the third quarter, each of the aforementioned indexes suffered significant double-digit losses, with the Russell 2000 down 21.9%, the Russell 1000 falling 14.7%, the S&P 500 off 13.9% and the Nasdaq losing 12.9%. Fears of European defaults and the possibility of a double-dip recession in the U.S. were factors, though U.S. and European investors may well have been more motivated to sell based on their utter lack of confidence in the abilities of the developed world's political leaders to meet the challenges of economic stagnation and staggering government debt.
When some progress seemed to be made on these fronts, share prices rebounded through much of the fourth quarter. The bull run was dominated by an October rally just as the third-quarter downturn was primarily driven by a disastrous August and September. Each major index finished the fourth quarter with double-digit gains. Small-caps led the way in this dynamic period, gaining 15.5%, compared to a gain of 11.8% for both the Russell 1000 and S&P 500 Indexes, and 7.9% for the Nasdaq. Yet after all the Sturm und Drang in 2011—of its second half in particular—here is where the four domestic indexes wound up for the calendar year: The Russell 2000 fell 4.2%, the Russell 1000 gained 1.5%, the S&P 500 climbed 2.1%, and the Nasdaq lost 1.8%. After a year of prices leaping and crashing, the U.S. stock markets did not move much at all. Were the bullish October and the less wildly volatile months of November and December positive signs that investors were beginning to pay less attention to headlines and more to company fundamentals? We would like to think so, but this remains an open question.
The ongoing possibility of government defaults in Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain, as well as the resulting economic slowdown that gripped much of Europe, continued to weigh heavily on the minds of investors in the second half. This anxiety was reflected in the larger calendar-year losses for global, international and European indexes. The Russell Global ex-U.S. Small Cap Index finished the year down 18.7%, behind its large-cap sibling, the Russell Global ex-U.S. Large Cap Index, which declined 13.8%. Each enjoyed a modestly positive first half, up 0.8% and 4.1%, respectively, before succumbing to the same woes that afflicted the U.S. markets in the third quarter.
The Russell Global ex-U.S. Small Cap was down 19.4% and its large-cap equivalent lost 20.1% in the third quarter. So far, so close to their U.S. compeers. Yet the non-U.S. markets lagged behind considerably in the fourth quarter, with the Russell Global ex-U.S. Small Cap gaining a paltry 0.1% and its large-cap sibling climbing 3.6%. It remains to be seen whether this was a temporary phenomenon, a sign that the global economy outside the U.S. remains weak, or was evidence that the U.S. economy, for all its struggles, remains fundamentally strong on both an absolute and relative basis.
U.S. mid-cap stocks acquitted themselves well enough, though they did not lead the market in the second half as they did in the first, when the Russell Midcap Index gained 8.1%. The mid-cap index slid 18.9% in the third quarter before rebounding 12.3% in the fourth. For the year as a whole, the Russell Midcap was down 1.6%. As measured by the Russell Microcap Index, domestic micro-cap stocks continued to struggle, which was unsurprising in a market that saw investors growing less and less comfortable with risk through the end of September. After finishing the first half with a 3.1% gain, the micro-cap index declined 22.7% in the third quarter. So while its fourth-quarter gain of 13.8% was strong, it was not enough to shore up earlier losses. The Russell Microcap Index closed out 2011 with a 9.3% loss.
Consternation
Even as we grapple with the year's disappointments, we were struck by the inconsistent, decidedly nonlinear direction of average annual total returns for the Funds and for the major equity indexes over longer-term periods. The one- and five-year returns are low to negative, while the three- and ten-year numbers are terrific. The difference between the three- and five-year results is attributable to the former period spanning all of the recovery that ran from March 9, 2009 through April 29, 2011, along with just the tail end of the 2008 crisis and the volatile market of the last seven months of 2011. The five-year period encompassed all of these events as well as the low returns of 2007 and the deep declines of 2008. Most interesting to us is the ten-year period ended December 31, 2011, which includes the full peak-to-peak cycle that ran from July 13, 2007 through April 29, 2011, as well as the bulk of the previous cycle, which began on March 9, 2000 and lasted until July 13, 2007. This cycle includes, then, a large part of one major market dislocation—the bursting Internet bubble—and the bear market that was intensified by the global financial crisis in the fall of 2008. Even with these difficulties, small-cap results were solid for the Russell 2000 and very strong to solid for several Royce-managed portfolios. In fact, all of The Royce Funds with more than 10 years of history outpaced the small-cap index for this period.Contention
As we take the measure of the micro-cap, small-cap and mid-cap universe, we like much of what we see. We remain disciplined, bottom-up stock-pickers with a time horizon measured in years, so our sights are trained squarely on the long run. From that vantage point, we see a strong case to be made for investing in equities. What was lost in all of the fiscal worry and political melodrama of the last couple of years is the fact that many companies across the globe, and certainly here in the U.S., successfully navigated the recession and have been effectively managing their way through the current slow-growth economy. The overall condition of corporate balance sheets and cash flows—two key metrics in our security analysis process—is excellent. So we expect that as the economy continues to grow and political leaders finally begin to implement workable policies, more investors will begin to notice that fundamentals are strong throughout the equity world, which should help to usher in a solid decade for stocks, one that we suspect will feature frequent leadership rotation between asset classes and between higher quality and more speculative stocks.In our estimation, small-caps look very well-positioned to bounce back strong as part of a general upward move for equities. More specifically, some recent research has shown that high-quality small-caps, as measured by returns on invested capital (ROIC), are not only cheap on an absolute basis, but relative to their large-cap counterparts as well. There has been a lot of recent analysis devoted to showing that small-caps are statistically more expensive than large-caps, yet many of the companies that have been drawing our interest are not.
It comes as no surprise, then, that we think this is a very opportune time for active small-cap management. Historically, when returns are both highly correlated and underwhelming, inefficiencies develop that we seek to use to our long-term advantage. We are confident that active small-cap managers can generate satisfactory absolute results when returns begin to differentiate again. As we detailed in a research paper on the importance of active small-cap management, consistency, discipline and a long-term investment horizon are critical to realizing the goal of strong absolute long-term results that, as a byproduct of that effort, have also beaten small-cap benchmarks. The last several years have certainly underscored the poor track record of predictions for markets and economies, but as equity returns become less closely correlated, we see the potential for active and disciplined small-cap management to succeed.
Conclusion
This is the environment for which we have been preparing. We invested in 2011 in much the same way that we have since 1972—with a disciplined, long-term approach that searches far and wide for what we deem are attractive prices for great companies. Historically, we have sought to use volatility as part of our arsenal of tactics. Highly volatile markets tend to create even greater opportunities because they drive share prices lower, and they do so with little or no regard for a business's fundamentals. While this helped to create a host of short-term disappointments last year, at the same time it presented us with a number of what we believe are very promising long-term opportunities.It is also important to point out that, though daily volatility was very high, monthly returns in 2011 were not as wildly out of sync with other years as the day-to-day drama might lead one to believe. We think that we are in a new era of high daily volatility that investors will better adjust to in 2012 and beyond. More important is our belief that fundamentals are much better than the headlines; that quality will continue to be an important driver of long-term outperformance; and that non-U.S. small-caps will enjoy improved performance in the years to come.
Important Disclosure Information
Thoughts in this piece are solely those of Royce & Associates, LLC, investment adviser for The Royce Funds. Smaller-cap stocks may involve considerably more risk than larger-cap stocks. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.For 1-year, 5-year and since inception returns for The Royce Funds, please see our Prices and Performance page.
This material is not authorized for distribution unless preceded or accompanied by a current prospectus. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing or sending money.
All indexes referenced are unmanaged and capitalization weighted. Russell Investment Group is the source and owner of the trademarks, service marks and copyrights related to the Russell Indexes. Russell® is a trademark of Russell Investment Group. The Russell 2000 is an index of domestic small-cap stocks that measures the performance of the 2,000 smallest publicly traded U.S. companies in the Russell 3000 Index. The Russell 1000 index is an unmanaged, capitalization-weighted index of domestic large-cap stocks. It measures the performance of the 1,000 largest publicly traded U.S. companies in the Russell 3000 Index. The Russell Midcap Index measures the performance of the mid-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe. The Russell Microcap Index includes 1,000 of the smallest securities in the small-cap Russell 2000 Index. The Russell Global ex-U.S. Small Cap Index is an index of global small-cap stocks, excluding the United States. The Russell Global ex-U.S. Large Cap Index is an index of global large-cap stocks, excluding the United States. The S&P 500 is an index of U.S. large-cap stocks selected by Standard & Poor's based on market size, liquidity and industry grouping, among other factors. The Nasdaq Composite is an index of the more than 3,000 common equities listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. The Royce Funds is a service mark of The Royce Funds.
Distributor of The Royce Fund: Royce Fund Services, Inc.
