Under normal circumstances, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in equity securities of micro-capitalization companies. The Fund considers micro-capitalization companies to be companies with market capitalizations generally within the ranges of the Russell Microcap® Index at the time of purchase. As of December 31, 2023, the market capitalization range of the Russell Microcap® Index was between $0.63 million and $7.9 billion. The Fund’s investments in equity securities may include common and preferred stock, convertible securities, securities of real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) and shares of investment companies, including exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) designed to track micro-cap indices. While the Fund invests primarily in equity securities of U.S. issuers, it may invest in securities of foreign issuers, including those in emerging market countries or developing countries as defined by the World Bank, International Finance Corporation or the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) emerging market indices or other comparable indices. Investments in such foreign issuers are not expected to exceed 20% of the Fund’s net assets. The Fund follows an investing style that favors core investments.

The Fund’s sub-adviser, Kennedy Capital Management LLC (“Kennedy Capital” or the “Sub-Adviser”), utilizes fundamental, bottom-up research to identify companies that are able to reinvest in their businesses at attractive rates of return, and invest in those companies when prices do not, in the view of the Sub-Adviser, adequately reflect the companies’ potential value creation from those investments, including their anticipated growth prospects. The Sub-Adviser believes that the operating cash-flow returns of a business is the best measure of a company’s performance and that the ability to reinvest cash flows into high return projects creates a powerful compounding effect, which in turn creates value for shareholders over time. The Sub-Adviser employs a research team of sector-specific analysts to perform fundamental analysis on new potential ideas for the strategy, as well as existing holdings, in order to invest across the full spectrum of opportunities. Each company under consideration for investment is initially classified by the Sub-Adviser’s research team as one of these investment types: (i) Steady Compounder, (ii) Material Positive Change (including growth prospects), (iii) Out of Favor, and (iv) Deep Value. Companies classified as Steady Compounder are established companies that are able to sustain evaluated levels of asset growth, have consistently high or expanding returns on invested capital and have high barriers to entry. Companies classified as Material Positive Change demonstrate structural change (e.g., management divesting an underperforming business segment) that improves asset growth and/or returns on invested capital (“ROIC”) or cash flow return on investment (“CFROI”) have a growth profile post-change and can be found anywhere along the growth life cycle. Companies classified as Out of Favor are those companies whose intrinsic business returns are undervalued and experience near term negative sentiment. Companies classified as Deep Value are those companies with a significant gap between intrinsic and market valuations and whose current levels of growth and ROIC/CFROI may be weak in comparison to their peers. This labor intensive, bottom-up approach, combined with discounted cash-flow valuation analysis, forms the basis of the Sub-Adviser’s investment process.

The Sub-Adviser may sell all or a portion of a position of the Fund’s portfolio holding when in its opinion one or more of the following occurs, among other reasons: (i) there is a change in the Sub-Adviser’s analysis on a particular issuer; (ii) a company’s stock price is at the high end of the company’s historical range; (iii) the issuer’s fundamentals deteriorate; (iv) the Sub-Adviser identifies more attractive investment opportunities for the Fund; (v) the issuer’s market capitalization consistently exceeds the capitalization range of the Russell Microcap® Index; or (vi) the Fund requires cash to meet redemption requests.

The Fund also may invest in American, European, and Global Depositary Receipts (“ADRs,” “EDRs,” and “GDRs,” respectively). ADRs are receipts that represent interests in foreign securities held on deposit by U.S. banks. EDRs and GDRs have the same qualities as ADRs, except that they may be traded in several international trading markets. The Fund may also invest in initial public offerings (“IPOs”) of equity securities.