Brendan Hartman and Jim Stoeffel Talk AI Opportunities on MarketWatch.com —Royce
article 07-15-2024

Brendan Hartman and Jim Stoeffel Talk AI Opportunities on MarketWatch.com

They talked with Philip Van Doorn about a diverse group of holdings involved in both AI and the semiconductor industry.

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PMs Brendan Hartman and Jim Stoeffel talked to Philip Van Doorn of MarketWatch.com about a diverse group of holdings involved in both AI and the semiconductor industry in a piece entitled, “Here’s a way to look beyond Nvidia’s stock for AI investments.”

Read the piece.

Phillip began the piece by discussing how Nvidia dominates coverage that looks at “the growth of artificial-intelligence hardware, and rightly so. But there are companies on the other end of the spectrum — small-cap and even microcap stocks — that might be less risky for investors looking to ride the AI and semiconductor wave in the stock market.”

And this is where Brendan and Jim come in. They discussed a diverse set of holdings and emphasized the “picks and shovels” approach they use in Royce Small-Cap Opportunity Fund’s diverse portfolio.

Jim talked about two holdings that he sees as potential beneficiaries of AI-centered growth: “As the semiconductor-equipment market accelerates from its recent slowdown and with new semiconductor use cases such as high-bandwidth memory for artificial-intelligence applications, we believe this will result in higher earnings power in the next upcycle.”

On a more general level, both discussed the importance of diversification in the Fund’s theme-driven portfolio, with Brendan remarking, “If we have a particular investment theme, we will own four or five stocks because we want to get the theme right without taking specific risks.”

He added that managing the Fund involved conversations with companies’ management teams, close analysis of financial reports, and “deep digging” to “find out what is going on underneath the numbers.”

Along with Portfolio Manager Jim Harvey and Assistant PM Kavitha Venkatraman, the pair also recently discussed How AI Is Creating Big Opportunities for Select Small-Cap Companies on our site.

Important Disclosure Information

Average Annual Total Returns as of 6/30/2024 (%)

  QTD1 1YR 3YR 5YR 10YR SINCE
INCEPT.
DATE ANNUAL
OPERATING EXPENSES
NET               GROSS
Small-Cap Opportunity -1.51 9.44 0.88 13.52 8.71 11.82 11/19/96  1.23  1.23
Russell 2000 Value
-3.64 10.90 -0.53 7.07 6.23 8.73 N/A  N/A  N/A
Russell 2000
-3.28 10.06 -2.58 6.94 7.00 8.07 N/A  N/A  N/A
1 Not annualized.

All performance information reflects past performance, is presented on a total return basis, reflects the reinvestment of distributions, and does not reflect the deduction of taxes that a shareholder would pay on fund distributions or the redemption of fund shares. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate, so that shares may be worth more or less than their original cost when redeemed. Current month-end performance may be higher or lower than performance quoted and may be obtained at www.royceinvest.com. Operating expenses reflect the Fund's total annual operating expenses for the Investment Class as of the Fund's most current prospectus and include management fees and other expenses.

Mr. Hartman’s and Mr. Stoeffel’s thoughts and opinions concerning the stock market are solely their own and, of course, there can be no assurance with regard to future market movements. No assurance can be given that the past performance trends as outlined above will continue in the future.

The performance data and trends outlined in this presentation are presented for illustrative purposes only. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Historical market trends are not necessarily indicative of future market movements.

Frank Russell Company (“Russell”) is the source and owner of the trademarks, service marks and copyrights related to the Russell Indexes. Russell® is a trademark of Frank Russell Company. Neither Russell nor its licensors accept any liability for any errors or omissions in the Russell Indexes and / or Russell ratings or underlying data and no party may rely on any Russell Indexes and / or Russell ratings and / or underlying data contained in this communication. No further distribution of Russell Data is permitted without Russell’s express written consent. Russell does not promote, sponsor or endorse the content of this communication. The Russell 2000 is an unmanaged, capitalization-weighted 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 2000 Value and Growth indexes consist of the respective value and growth stocks within the Russell 2000 as determined by Russell Investments. The performance of an index does not represent exactly any particular investment, as you cannot invest directly in an index.

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. Smaller-cap stocks may involve considerably more risk than larger-cap stocks. (Please see "Primary Risks for Fund Investors" in the prospectus.)

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