The Oakmark Global Select Fund declined 4.9% for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2019, underperforming the MSCI World Index, which returned 1.8%. For the most recent quarter, the Fund declined 0.8% compared to the benchmark’s return of 0.5%. More importantly, the Fund has returned an average of 7.1% per year since its inception in October 2006, outperforming the MSCI World Index’s annualized gain of 5.8% over the same period.

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, headquartered in the U.S., was the largest contributor for the quarter. Alphabet delivered second-quarter earnings results that exceeded market expectations. Total revenues grew 22%

In August, the Business Roundtable, a group composed of chief executives of 181 of the U.S.’s largest corporations, released a statement that outlined a “modern standard for corporate responsibility.” All 181 CEOs signed the statement, vowing to “commit to lead their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders—customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders.” Previous Roundtable statements “endorsed principles of shareholder primacy—that corporations exist principally to serve shareholders,” but shareholders were listed last in the updated list. Befitting our current political climate, this new statement was greeted with acclaim in some quarters, suspicion in others and skepticism elsewhere. Some saw this

The Oakmark Select Fund was down 3.4% for the quarter, trailing the S&P 500 Index’s 1.7% return. For the fiscal year ending September 30, 2019, the Oakmark Select Fund decreased by 10.3%, compared to a 4.3% gain for the S&P 500 Index.

As shareholders of the Fund and as stewards of your capital, we remain frustrated by how much our portfolio and the value style have recently underperformed the S&P. However, we are encouraged that the Fund owns a portfolio of securities that trades at a substantial discount to our estimate of its intrinsic value. We expect that when “value”