ICON Flexible Bond Fund (IOBZX) Receives Morningstar Rating of 5-Stars
ICON Advisers, Inc.
August 12, 2023
DENVER, August 3, 2023 – ICON Advisers, Inc. (“ICON”), an asset manager offering a line-up sector-based mutual funds and managed portfolios, is pleased to recognize a variety of milestones for the ICON Flexible Bond Fund (IOBZX) and Portfolio Manager Jerry Paul, CFA. Among others, we are happy to announce the ICON Flexible Bond Fund has recently been awarded an overall Morningstar Rating™ of 5 stars among 351 Multisector Bond funds, based on risk-adjusted returns as of July 31, 2023.
This award is received in conjunction with ICON celebrating Jerry Paul’s 10-year anniversary as the primary PM of the Fund on July 10, 2023. Also of note is the recent achievement of IOBZX crossing the $200MM threshold of assets.
“We are proud to receive a 5-star rating from Morningstar, and the increased inflows to the Fund is a testament of our investor’s trust in our products and investment methodology,” said Mr. Paul. “Our value-oriented bond management approach seeks to uncover value by exploiting perceived market inefficiencies through a variety of thematic strategies, which typically include an event driven catalyst. The Fund operates as alternative or complement to a traditional bond strategy, which typically focus on top-down factors like interest rate movements and economic forecasting.”
The ICON Flexible Bond Fund utilizes a systematic and disciplined methodology to actively manage interest rate risk and seeks maximum total return by making active sector, duration, and credit allocations with a focus on value oriented, bottom-up bond selections.
Mr. Paul is a member of the ICON Investment Committee. Mr. Paul was named Morningstar’s Fixed Income Manager of the Year for 1999 while he managed high yield bonds for INVESCO. His professional investment experience includes over forty years in fixed income portfolio management and research, spanning several roles, including INVESCO Funds Group, Stein Roe & Farnham and Century Life of America.
About ICON Advisers, Inc.
Dr. Craig Callahan founded ICON over 30 years ago in 1986. He based ICON’s core investment methodology on two related ideas: emotions do not belong in investing and investing should be unbiased to trends, global events, or market shifts. ICON employs its disciplined investment methodology, which is rooted in the fundamentals of finance, to compute intrinsic value. ICON offers a diverse lineup of 7 mutual funds, made up of 4 Sector Funds, 2 Diversified Funds, and a Fixed Income Fund, along with 8 Tactical Allocation Portfolios (ITAPs) and 3 Strategy Based Investing Portfolio (SBIPs). With ICON’s broad scope and our commitment to uncovering value across the market, our funds can accommodate a wide range of investment needs.
As of 7/31/23 the ICON Flexible Bond Fund received an overall 4-Star MorningstarTM rating in the Multisector Bond category, based on risk-adjusted returns, among 351 Multisector Bond funds.
The data quoted represents past performance, which is no guarantee of future results. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate and shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. The data quoted represents past performance, which is no guarantee of future results. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate and shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be higher or lower than the data quoted. Please call 1-800-828-4881 or visit www.ICONAdvisers.com for performance results current to the most recent month-end.
There are risks involved with mutual fund investing, including the risk of loss of principal. There is no assurance that the investment process will consistently lead to successful results. Investing in fixed income securities such as bonds involves interest rate risk. When interest rates rise, the value of fixed income securities generally decreases. High-yield bonds involve a greater risk of default and price volatility than U.S. Government and other higher-quality bonds. An actively managed investment product does not guarantee better returns or performance than any other kind of investment.
ICON’s value-based investing model is an analytical, quantitative approach to investing that employs various factors, including projected earnings growth estimates and bond yields, in an effort to determine whether securities are over- or underpriced relative to ICON’s estimates of their intrinsic value. ICON’s value approach involves forward-looking statements and assumptions based on judgments and projections that are neither predictive nor guarantees of future results. Value readings are contingent on several variables including, without limitation, earnings, growth estimates, interest rates and overall market conditions. Although valuation readings serve as guidelines for our investment decisions, we retain the discretion to buy and sell securities that fall beyond these guidelines as needed. Value investing involves risks and uncertainties and does not guarantee better performance or lower costs than other investment methodologies.
The Morningstar information contained herein is ©2022 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved. The Morningstar information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete, or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information.
Morningstar Rating is for the Institutional Class shares only; other classes may have different performance characteristics. The Morningstar Rating™ for funds, or “star rating”, is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product’s monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are : 100% three-year rating for 36-59 months of total return, 60% five-year rating/40% three-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% five-year rating/20% three-year rating for 120 or more months of total return. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent three-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods. Ratings do not take into account the effects of sales charges and loads.
As of 7/31/23 the ICON Flexible Bond Fund, Institutional Class, was rated against the following numbers of U.S. Multisector Bond Funds over the following time periods: 313 funds in the last three years, 260 funds in the last five years, and 160 funds in the last ten years. With respect to these U.S. Multisector Bond Funds, the ICON Flexible Bond Fund, Institutional Class, received an overall Morningstar Rating of 5-stars, with 5-stars for the three- and five-year periods, and 4-stars for the ten-year period. Morningstar Rating is for the Institutional Class shares only; other classes may have different performance characteristics.
Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Supporting documentation for any claims, comparisons, recommendations, statistics or other technical data will be furnished upon request.
Consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and share classes of each ICON Fund carefully before investing. The prospectus, summary prospectus, and the statement of additional information contain this and other information about the Funds and are available by visiting www.ICONAdvisers.com or calling 1-800-828-4881.Please read the prospectus and the statement of additional information carefully before investing.
RFS Partners, Distributor
Media Contact: Brian Rotter: brotter@iconadvisers.com, 303-328-9254
