NPFA utilizes various investment vehicles and managers, depending on your needs and objectives. This includes both external managers as well as an internal investment management team.
Our in-house investment management team maintains an investment philosophy with a few straightforward themes: (1) Stocks should be the cornerstone of any long-term investment plan because of their ability to maintain purchasing power over the long term. (2) Superior earnings and dividend growth should play a key role in equity selection. (3) Investing in high quality companies while paying particular attention to diversification are major factors in controlling portfolio risk.
This investment style could be characterized as "quality growth at a reasonable price". As to "quality growth", research is conducted based upon the fundamentals:
- Earnings growth and consistency
- Health of the company's balance sheet
- Quality of management
- Growth strategy
- Competitive advantage
"At a reasonable price" includes comparing current and forecasted price earnings ratios to historical absolute and relative price earnings ratio ranges. In addition, a company's growth rate is compared to its price earnings ratio.
