Osterweis Short Duration Credit Fund
Professionally Managed Portfolios
Expense ratio
Net assets1
$73.55M
Holdings1
10
Category
Other
Return

Investment objective & strategy

As of June 30, 2023 · prospectus

Objective. The Osterweis Short Duration Credit Fund (the Fund) seeks low volatility and absolute returns consisting of income and moderate capital appreciation.

Strategy. Osterweis Capital Management, LLC (the Adviser) seeks to achieve the Funds investment objective by investing primarily in fixed income securities and by actively managing interest rate and default risks. The Fund takes a sustainable credit approach to investment analysis, combining rigorous fundamental analysis with an in-depth evaluation of sustainable investing factors to identify investments. In doing so, the Funds strategy is managed with a focus on delivering low volatility and absolute returns by using fundamental analysis to construct a portfolio consisting primarily of carefully selected, short duration fixed-income securities issued by companies who prioritize making progress in key areas of sustainable business practices. Relative sustainable practices and exclusions based on specific environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks are both considerations … Osterweis Capital Management, LLC (the Adviser) seeks to achieve the Funds investment objective by investing primarily in fixed income securities and by actively managing interest rate and default risks. The Fund takes a sustainable credit approach to investment analysis, combining rigorous fundamental analysis with an in-depth evaluation of sustainable investing factors to identify investments. In doing so, the Funds strategy is managed with a focus on delivering low volatility and absolute returns by using fundamental analysis to construct a portfolio consisting primarily of carefully selected, short duration fixed-income securities issued by companies who prioritize making progress in key areas of sustainable business practices. Relative sustainable practices and exclusions based on specific environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks are both considerations in the Advisers fundamental and sustainable credit research process. Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its assets, defined as net assets plus any borrowings for investment purposes, in fixed income securities of sustainable companies. The Fund defines a sustainable company as a company that seeks to improve its financial position and/or maintain its competitive advantage by, among other things, proactively addressing ESG risks material to its business operations. At the time of purchase, companies added to the Funds portfolio must, in the Advisers judgement, align with the Advisers proprietary Sustainability Spectrum sustainable business practices criteria, as described below. The Fund defines fixed income securities to include: bills, notes, bonds, debentures, convertible bonds, loan participations, syndicated loan assignments and other evidence of indebtedness issued by U.S. or foreign corporations, governments, government agencies or government instrumentalities, including floating-rate securities. Convertible bonds provide interest income as well as capital appreciation if the value of equity conversion feature increases, though the Fund primarily considers convertible bonds in which the equity conversion feature is not a significant portion of the bonds value. Floating-rate securities provide interest income that can increase or decrease with interest rates. The Fund invests in individual fixed income securities without restriction as to issuer credit quality, capitalization or security maturity. Though the Fund can invest in securities domiciled in foreign countries (including emerging markets) and denominated in foreign currencies, the Fund invests primarily in securities denominated in U.S. dollars issued by issuers domiciled in developed markets. The Fund considers emerging market countries to be those represented in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. The Fund may invest a majority of its assets in lower-quality fixed income securities commonly known as high yield or junk bonds. Junk bonds are generally rated lower than Baa3 by Moodys Investors Service (Moodys) or lower than BBB- by S&P Global Ratings (S&P). The Fund may invest in junk bonds that are in default, subject to bankruptcy or reorganization. High yield bonds have a higher expected rate of default than higher quality bonds. The Fund may, from time to time, have significant exposure to one or more sectors of the market. The Adviser seeks to preserve the Funds principal by managing interest rate, default and currency risks. The Adviser manages interest rate risk by maintaining, under normal market conditions, an average portfolio duration of 3.5 years or less by investing in short-term, medium-term and floating rate securities. Duration is a measure of sensitivity of a securitys price to changes in interest rates. For example, a security with a duration of 2 would be expected to decrease in price 2% for every 1% rise in interest rates. The Adviser manages default risk by selecting securities of issuers that it believes will pay interest and principal regardless of their credit rating, based upon the advisers credit analysis of each issuer. The Adviser may also select securities that are in default, subject to bankruptcy or reorganization where the Adviser believes the risks to be consistent with capital preservation, based on the Advisers analysis of an issuers liquidation value or post-bankruptcy or post-reorganization value. The Adviser believes that the combination of this fundamental analysis and the short duration characteristics of the securities result in a low volatility, absolute return risk profile. The Adviser further manages default risk by considering whether an issuers management is making deliberate business decisions around the ESG factors most relevant to its operations. By recognizing that ESG risk factors are credit factors impacting a companys creditworthiness, the Adviser aims to evaluate if a business is operating in a sustainable and responsible way to preserve its competitive advantage and maintain its staying power. The Adviser seeks to invest in companies who are leaders in their sectors in key areas of sustainable business practices or who are making or are likely to make visible progress toward appropriate sustainable practices. The Adviser evaluates each issuer using its proprietary Sustainability Spectrum, which considers each companys level of awareness, strategy, execution, and measurement regarding relevant sustainability factors. By monitoring Sustainability Spectrum status over time, the Adviser aims to invest in issuers who are proactively seeking to mitigate unexpected liabilities and volatility catalysts that can arise from neglected ESG risks. The Adviser leverages proprietary research that seeks to understand sustainable business practices and ESG risks for securities added to the portfolio. The Adviser considers ESG factors to be credit factors, and systematically integrates them into its credit analysis and investment decision-making process. Specific key areas will vary by industry, and the weight of consideration can vary by company. The Adviser does not employ negative screening. However, the Adviser tends to disqualify companies with exposure to industries with elevated risks and issues related to the five ESG focus areas noted below. Such industries include, for example, casinos (governance, external social), oil and gas (environmental) and weapons and alcohol (external social). The Adviser utilizes a proprietary sustainability research database, fundamental sector research, and the portfolio managers evaluation in constructing the Funds portfolio. The portfolio management team also selects securities based on an issuers ability to manage the ESG risks to which its business is exposed, as determined by Adviser. The sustainable credit research process considers environmental, social and governance risks and issues for an issuer through a review of five primary ESG focus areas: (1) environmental factors which assess environmental risks; (2) external social factors which assess the effect on people and communities outside of the company; (3) stakeholder factors which assess the effect on business constituents, such as employees, vendors and investors; (4) strategic and operational factors which assess the sustainability of the companys business strategy and operations; (5) governance factors which assess ownership structure, risk management and oversight infrastructure and related exposures. The Adviser considers risks and opportunities holistically, meaning a security will not necessarily be excluded from investment due to an unfavorable evaluation of any one particular ESG factor if the overall analysis results in a favorable sustainability evaluation by the Adviser. Consistent with this approach, the Fund is permitted to invest in the securities of an issuer that may be at an earlier stage on the Advisers proprietary Sustainability Spectrum with respect to ESG factors or has received lower ESG ratings from other commonly-known industry third-party services while also having a favorable non-ESG evaluation when measured at the time of investment, provided that the Adviser has determined that the company has placed and continues to maintain an acceptable level of emphasis on managing its ESG risks material to its business operations. The portfolio management team may also engage the issuer or relevant stakeholders of the issuer to gain a deeper understanding of a risk, promote improved risk management, and/or provide insight on potential opportunities. The Adviser believes that both credit risk factors and sustainability factors contribute to an issuers creditworthiness and the combination of fundamental credit research and sustainable and responsible business practices result in a risk profile that is more likely to preserve capital and deliver attractive risk-adjusted total returns over time. The Adviser manages foreign currency risk by investing primarily in securities denominated in U.S. dollars. If the Fund invests in foreign currency denominated securities, the Fund restricts such activity to less than 50% of Fund assets. The Adviser buys fixed income securities that meet its credit and sustainability analysis standards and that it believes offer the highest expected return among issuers of similar credit quality. The Adviser may sell a security when its expected return declines, the issuers credit quality or sustainability factors deteriorate, or to adjust portfolio-level duration or raise cash. The Fund may engage in frequent trading of its portfolio, resulting in a higher turnover rate.

Top holdings

As of Sept. 30, 2023 · N-PORT

Allocation by sector

As of September 30, 2023 · N-PORT
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Portfolio moves

Jun 30, 2023 → Sep 30, 2023
Opened
3
Exited
14
Increased
1
Decreased
0
Unchanged
6

How many positions this fund opened, exited, grew, trimmed, or left unchanged between its two most recent N-PORT snapshots — net changes between point-in-time reports, not a trade log.

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Footnotes

  1. Net assets and holdings count as of September 30, 2023, from the fund's N-PORT filing.

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