Throughout 2012's long list of ongoing economic headwinds—the elections, the slowed growth of developing countries, the Fed's zero-interest-rate policies, and the President and Congress's efforts to avert the fiscal cliff—we stood confidently by our time-tested, disciplined investment approach. Although the market responded bearishly at times, we were happy to see that in the face of macro events investors began to return to quality, ushering in what we believe to be a return to a more historically typical market cycle.
"Men can do nothing without the make-believe of a beginning."
—George Eliot
See a Little Light
When seeing out one year and ushering in another, it is important to remember that the calendar, useful though it may be, provides only one way of tracking time. Some people, for example, choose to look to spring for a new beginning, while others, more habituated to the rhythms of the school year, prefer the arrival of fall. The stock market, in all its caprice and unpredictability, most often eschews 12-month spans in favor of its own irregularly paced seasons. So we find ourselves, as we look back on 2012 and peer ahead to 2013, at one of those curious, familiar junctures when the calendar compels a shift that the market seems to have anticipated months before. From our perspective as active small-cap managers, the recent market cycle change was something of a watershed. In fact, it seems very likely to us that the 2012 small-cap low on June 4 signaled the end of the closely correlated, range-bound cycle of the last few years, a cycle that created ample disappointments for those of us committed to high quality, risk management, and long-term absolute returns. It is not yet clear that this June low will prove as auspicious as it looks to us at this writing. Suffice it to say that major market inflection points seldom do any of us the favor of announcing their arrival.
Quality shone through in this more uncertain period. Throughout most of our first 35 years of managing portfolios, this resilience would have been unexceptional, and hardly worth mentioning, because quality companies have historically defended well. However, since the spring of 2010—and even more dramatically since the April 2011 small-cap high—little of what worked historically has enjoyed success. This has made the last five years—the last three particularly—among the most frustrating periods of our 40 years in business. With retrospective clarity, perhaps we should have suspected that something was amiss, or at least historically aberrant, when stocks rebounded so quickly and dynamically from the March 2009 bottom. Considering that the recession which began in 2007 was made far worse by the global financial crisis in the fall of 2008, the market's surge may have been too much too soon, welcome though it was. In any event, investors soon became more than a little wary, shuffling in and out of stocks with little regard for business fundamentals and too much for macro headlines, nearly all of them negative. Unable to establish any clear direction, the market sputtered as it rose and wheezed as it stumbled. It often seemed as though many of the investors who were frantically shoving money in and pulling it out again weeks, days, or hours later were the same people decrying the mercurial nature of asset prices and questioning whether equities were any longer a viable investment option. Along the way, results for passive investment approaches began to outpace those of an ever-larger number of active managers. So it is with a large measure of relief that we bid a tentative and hopeful good-bye to all that as we look ahead to better, more stable days.
Share prices did not skyrocket following the June 4 small-cap low. July, in fact, saw a downturn for most stocks. But August and September were highly rewarding months that enabled equities to rally decisively enough to post impressive third-quarter results. For the quarter, the small-cap Russell 2000 Index gained 5.3% while the large-cap S&P 500 and Russell 1000 Indexes were up 6.4% and 6.3%, respectively, and the more tech-oriented Nasdaq Composite climbed 6.2%. Following the strong third quarter, equities took a bit of breather in October, before rallying again in November and December, which repeated to some degree the third quarter's pattern, though with far more modest or slightly negative results. For the fourth quarter, the Russell 2000 was up 1.9%, the Russell 1000 rose 0.1%, the S&P 500 was off 0.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 3.1%.
The end result was a strong calendar year, especially compared to 2011, with each major equity index posting double-digit returns. In 2012, the Russell 2000 gained 16.3%, the S&P 500 rose 16.0%, the Russell 1000 was up 16.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite increased 15.9%. Three-year returns for the major indexes were also strong, with each again posting double-digit average annual total returns. For the three-year period ended December 31, 2012, the Russell 2000 led with a gain of 12.2%. The Russell 2000, Russell 1000, and S&P 500 each finished the year within 2.5% of their respective highs established during 2012's third quarter, while the Nasdaq Composite remained 40.2% below its peak from March 10, 2000.
Non-U.S. equities also enjoyed a strong second half after starting the year with generally lower gains when stacked against their domestic cousins. The Russell Global ex-U.S. Small Cap Index climbed 8.3% in the third quarter, while the Russell Global ex-U.S. Large Cap Index rose 7.7%. In contrast to the domestic indexes, these strong third-quarter performances were followed by consistently positive results in the fourth quarter. The Russell Global ex-U.S. Small Cap Index was up 4.8% versus a gain of 5.8% for the Russell Global ex-U.S Large Cap Index. For the full year small-caps were the leaders, with the Russell Global ex-U.S Small Cap Index gaining 18.8% while the Russell Global ex-U.S Large Cap Index was up 17.0%. So while the perception persists that non-U.S. markets are a mess—a perception based on the uncertain debt and currency situations in Europe and slower-than-desired growth in developing countries—the reality is that stocks across the globe finished the year with highly attractive results.
Shifting back stateside finds that micro-cap stocks enjoyed a very strong year. After finishing the first half with an enviable 13.0% return, the Russell Microcap Index climbed 5.9% in the third quarter and was essentially flat in the fourth, up 0.04%, which gave the index a 19.7% increase in 2012. Mid-cap stocks also experienced robust results for the calendar year—the Russell Midcap Index was up 17.3% in 2012.
Throughout this time, we remained patient and disciplined, resolutely searching for companies that met our standards for quality and attractive valuation while investors grew more interested in other matters. On the one hand, they sought safety in fixed income instruments, utilities, or high-yielding vehicles such as REITs and MLPs; on the other hand they looked for fast, dramatic growth, which most often came from highly leveraged companies in which we take no interest. For our part, we continued to see many companies across several sector and industry groups that answered to our preferred combination of quality and value. However, many of the largest company, industry, and/or sector weightings in some portfolios have fared poorest, including those in the Energy, Materials, and Information Technology sectors. While all of this has been frustrating, none of it has changed the way in which we invest or construct portfolios. As we said in our Semiannual Review and Report, patience and discipline are not virtues to which we pay lip service. Our investment horizon will remain squarely focused on the long term, as it has for 40 years.
Our contention is that quality stocks underperformed through much of the recent cycle of correlation owing to both the zero-interest-rate policies that the Fed has implemented over the last few years and the related rounds of quantitative easing. With interest rates so low, companies were finding it very easy to restructure debt or take on more of it. The price companies were paying to do so was miniscule, so investors acted accordingly by rewarding a number of fast-growing, highly leveraged businesses while often ignoring those with strong balance sheets. In an environment where the cost of debt has been virtually nil, low-debt companies lost their traditional advantage. However, we also suspect that we have reached a stage where this advantage is diminishing because rates have been historically low for a few years now and monetary stimulus no longer has the same dramatic impact it had with the first two or three rounds of quantitative easing. In addition to their stalwart second-half returns, we think this is a good sign for high-quality small-cap stocks.
In this context, it is worth mentioning that the tax and stimulus deal that was struck early in January still left important matters such as infrastructure spending, entitlements, and the next debt ceiling increase unresolved. So there will be opportunities for political intransigence to potentially affect the markets in 2013, and it will be interesting to see how investors respond to additional rounds of fiscal gridlock. Our thought is that greater levels of attention to business fundamentals will remain high. We believe that equities will continue their positive performance into 2013, that quality-oriented companies and active management approaches, especially within the small-cap universe, will continue their resurgence, and that non-U.S. small-caps will continue to surprise on the upside. We are very happy to say that it looks like a new, more historically typical cycle has begun.
For The Royce Funds' one-, five-, 10-year, and/or since inception returns as of the most recent quarter-end period, 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 indices referenced are unmanaged and capitalization weighted. The 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. It 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 Global ex-U.S. Small Cap Index is an unmanaged, capitalization-weighted 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 Russell Microcap Index includes 1,000 of the smallest securities in the small-cap Russell 2000 Index, along with the next smallest eligible securities as determined by Russell. The Russell Midcap Index measures the performance of the mid-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe. It includes approximately 800 of the smallest securities in the Russell 1000 Index. 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.
Distributor of The Royce Fund: Royce Fund Services, Inc.
Also check out:
"Men can do nothing without the make-believe of a beginning."
—George Eliot
See a Little Light
When seeing out one year and ushering in another, it is important to remember that the calendar, useful though it may be, provides only one way of tracking time. Some people, for example, choose to look to spring for a new beginning, while others, more habituated to the rhythms of the school year, prefer the arrival of fall. The stock market, in all its caprice and unpredictability, most often eschews 12-month spans in favor of its own irregularly paced seasons. So we find ourselves, as we look back on 2012 and peer ahead to 2013, at one of those curious, familiar junctures when the calendar compels a shift that the market seems to have anticipated months before. From our perspective as active small-cap managers, the recent market cycle change was something of a watershed. In fact, it seems very likely to us that the 2012 small-cap low on June 4 signaled the end of the closely correlated, range-bound cycle of the last few years, a cycle that created ample disappointments for those of us committed to high quality, risk management, and long-term absolute returns. It is not yet clear that this June low will prove as auspicious as it looks to us at this writing. Suffice it to say that major market inflection points seldom do any of us the favor of announcing their arrival.
Quality shone through in this more uncertain period. Throughout most of our first 35 years of managing portfolios, this resilience would have been unexceptional, and hardly worth mentioning, because quality companies have historically defended well. However, since the spring of 2010—and even more dramatically since the April 2011 small-cap high—little of what worked historically has enjoyed success. This has made the last five years—the last three particularly—among the most frustrating periods of our 40 years in business. With retrospective clarity, perhaps we should have suspected that something was amiss, or at least historically aberrant, when stocks rebounded so quickly and dynamically from the March 2009 bottom. Considering that the recession which began in 2007 was made far worse by the global financial crisis in the fall of 2008, the market's surge may have been too much too soon, welcome though it was. In any event, investors soon became more than a little wary, shuffling in and out of stocks with little regard for business fundamentals and too much for macro headlines, nearly all of them negative. Unable to establish any clear direction, the market sputtered as it rose and wheezed as it stumbled. It often seemed as though many of the investors who were frantically shoving money in and pulling it out again weeks, days, or hours later were the same people decrying the mercurial nature of asset prices and questioning whether equities were any longer a viable investment option. Along the way, results for passive investment approaches began to outpace those of an ever-larger number of active managers. So it is with a large measure of relief that we bid a tentative and hopeful good-bye to all that as we look ahead to better, more stable days.
The Wall of Worry
An old adage has it that "the market climbs a wall of worry" during those times when stocks behave bullishly in the face of negative news or perceptions. It seems clear to us that in 2012 the market scaled just such a wall. Consider the following: For the most part, the bearish second quarter eroded, but did not undo, the gains achieved in the first. The year's final six months found many investors still behaving coolly toward equities and a host of large-scale economic and fiscal issues yet to be fully worked through. As the year closed, a fiscal cliff deal had yet to be reached, various European nations continued to flirt with financial peril, and China was still growing at a slower pace than in previous boom years. In addition, there was a typically contentious presidential election preceded by a disastrous hurricane that swept through the world's financial capital. Yet the market ultimately shrugged off most of these concerns.Share prices did not skyrocket following the June 4 small-cap low. July, in fact, saw a downturn for most stocks. But August and September were highly rewarding months that enabled equities to rally decisively enough to post impressive third-quarter results. For the quarter, the small-cap Russell 2000 Index gained 5.3% while the large-cap S&P 500 and Russell 1000 Indexes were up 6.4% and 6.3%, respectively, and the more tech-oriented Nasdaq Composite climbed 6.2%. Following the strong third quarter, equities took a bit of breather in October, before rallying again in November and December, which repeated to some degree the third quarter's pattern, though with far more modest or slightly negative results. For the fourth quarter, the Russell 2000 was up 1.9%, the Russell 1000 rose 0.1%, the S&P 500 was off 0.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 3.1%.
The end result was a strong calendar year, especially compared to 2011, with each major equity index posting double-digit returns. In 2012, the Russell 2000 gained 16.3%, the S&P 500 rose 16.0%, the Russell 1000 was up 16.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite increased 15.9%. Three-year returns for the major indexes were also strong, with each again posting double-digit average annual total returns. For the three-year period ended December 31, 2012, the Russell 2000 led with a gain of 12.2%. The Russell 2000, Russell 1000, and S&P 500 each finished the year within 2.5% of their respective highs established during 2012's third quarter, while the Nasdaq Composite remained 40.2% below its peak from March 10, 2000.
Non-U.S. equities also enjoyed a strong second half after starting the year with generally lower gains when stacked against their domestic cousins. The Russell Global ex-U.S. Small Cap Index climbed 8.3% in the third quarter, while the Russell Global ex-U.S. Large Cap Index rose 7.7%. In contrast to the domestic indexes, these strong third-quarter performances were followed by consistently positive results in the fourth quarter. The Russell Global ex-U.S. Small Cap Index was up 4.8% versus a gain of 5.8% for the Russell Global ex-U.S Large Cap Index. For the full year small-caps were the leaders, with the Russell Global ex-U.S Small Cap Index gaining 18.8% while the Russell Global ex-U.S Large Cap Index was up 17.0%. So while the perception persists that non-U.S. markets are a mess—a perception based on the uncertain debt and currency situations in Europe and slower-than-desired growth in developing countries—the reality is that stocks across the globe finished the year with highly attractive results.
Shifting back stateside finds that micro-cap stocks enjoyed a very strong year. After finishing the first half with an enviable 13.0% return, the Russell Microcap Index climbed 5.9% in the third quarter and was essentially flat in the fourth, up 0.04%, which gave the index a 19.7% increase in 2012. Mid-cap stocks also experienced robust results for the calendar year—the Russell Midcap Index was up 17.3% in 2012.
Good-Bye to All That (We Hope)
We have previously discussed the reasons for recent performance disappointments, but they are worth recapping for what we would like to think will be the last time, at least for a while. Beginning with 2007's recession and moving through the global financial crisis into the early days of June 2012, the markets were highly volatile, closely correlated, and frequently disappointing. This pattern could first be seen emerging in the spring of 2010 and was cast in harder material by the small-cap high on April 29, 2011. So while the one- and three-year numbers for the major domestic indexes were strong through the end of 2012, investors continue to be leery of the market, most probably owing to its lack of a sustainable course, bullish or bearish, especially in the roughly 13-month period between the April 2011 high and the 2012 low in early June. More importantly, this cycle of high correlation proved very difficult for certain Royce-managed portfolios.Throughout this time, we remained patient and disciplined, resolutely searching for companies that met our standards for quality and attractive valuation while investors grew more interested in other matters. On the one hand, they sought safety in fixed income instruments, utilities, or high-yielding vehicles such as REITs and MLPs; on the other hand they looked for fast, dramatic growth, which most often came from highly leveraged companies in which we take no interest. For our part, we continued to see many companies across several sector and industry groups that answered to our preferred combination of quality and value. However, many of the largest company, industry, and/or sector weightings in some portfolios have fared poorest, including those in the Energy, Materials, and Information Technology sectors. While all of this has been frustrating, none of it has changed the way in which we invest or construct portfolios. As we said in our Semiannual Review and Report, patience and discipline are not virtues to which we pay lip service. Our investment horizon will remain squarely focused on the long term, as it has for 40 years.
New Cycle, New Balance
The recent era of low rates and ample liquidity has not changed our view of the importance of strong balance sheets, high returns on invested capital, cash flow, or dividends. Many small-cap companies that possess any number of these characteristics underperformed the Russell 2000 in 2010, 2011, and the first half of 2012, which definitely hampered the effectiveness of our disciplined approach. This can be seen in many of the Funds' one-, three-, and even five-year results, in some cases, through the end of 2012. We did not enjoy watching so many portfolio favorites languish. But not once did we consider doing things differently. We knew that we were in a highly anomalous market, one that we may not see again for more than a generation. So we stayed patient and consistent while we waited for the cycle to shift.Our contention is that quality stocks underperformed through much of the recent cycle of correlation owing to both the zero-interest-rate policies that the Fed has implemented over the last few years and the related rounds of quantitative easing. With interest rates so low, companies were finding it very easy to restructure debt or take on more of it. The price companies were paying to do so was miniscule, so investors acted accordingly by rewarding a number of fast-growing, highly leveraged businesses while often ignoring those with strong balance sheets. In an environment where the cost of debt has been virtually nil, low-debt companies lost their traditional advantage. However, we also suspect that we have reached a stage where this advantage is diminishing because rates have been historically low for a few years now and monetary stimulus no longer has the same dramatic impact it had with the first two or three rounds of quantitative easing. In addition to their stalwart second-half returns, we think this is a good sign for high-quality small-cap stocks.
A Quality Cycle?
As correlation continues to abate, we expect to see more opportunities for quality stocks to flourish. This is ultimately why we were not surprised by the market's strength in the second half, even with ample ongoing uncertainty. We feel confident that the market has entered a cycle in which stock picking matters. Our optimism, cautious as it is, is bolstered by the fact that in the years ahead earnings growth can accelerate for small caps and should be robust as the economy continues to improve. While many companies are hesitant about capital expenditures, those issues have more to do with timing. That is, businesses were not willing to start spending until the President and Congress struck a deal. Yet our meetings with management teams have convinced us that there is no question about their willingness to invest.In this context, it is worth mentioning that the tax and stimulus deal that was struck early in January still left important matters such as infrastructure spending, entitlements, and the next debt ceiling increase unresolved. So there will be opportunities for political intransigence to potentially affect the markets in 2013, and it will be interesting to see how investors respond to additional rounds of fiscal gridlock. Our thought is that greater levels of attention to business fundamentals will remain high. We believe that equities will continue their positive performance into 2013, that quality-oriented companies and active management approaches, especially within the small-cap universe, will continue their resurgence, and that non-U.S. small-caps will continue to surprise on the upside. We are very happy to say that it looks like a new, more historically typical cycle has begun.
For The Royce Funds' one-, five-, 10-year, and/or since inception returns as of the most recent quarter-end period, please see our Prices and Performance page.
Important Disclosure Information
The 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.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 indices referenced are unmanaged and capitalization weighted. The 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. It 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 Global ex-U.S. Small Cap Index is an unmanaged, capitalization-weighted 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 Russell Microcap Index includes 1,000 of the smallest securities in the small-cap Russell 2000 Index, along with the next smallest eligible securities as determined by Russell. The Russell Midcap Index measures the performance of the mid-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe. It includes approximately 800 of the smallest securities in the Russell 1000 Index. 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.
Distributor of The Royce Fund: Royce Fund Services, Inc.
Also check out:
