Published on October 6, 2020

The Osterweis Total Return Fund was ranked against 311 funds in the nontraditional bond category, based on an equal weighting of the overall ratings provided by US News and World Report data sources as of August 31, 2020.

The Osterweis Total Return Fund (OSTRX) has been named the top overall nontraditional bond fund by U.S. News and World Report. The ranking reflects the fund’s strong position in the industry, as the U.S. News rating system is an equally weighted composite of ratings from five different services: Morningstar, Lipper, Zacks, CFRA, and The Street.com.

U.S. News assigns ratings from each service a score between 0-100 and ranks every fund in the category by its combined average score. In order to place first in the rankings, a fund must have the highest score in its cohort.

The non-traditional bond category includes funds that typically focus on absolute returns or non-correlated returns. While many funds in the category use higher risk securities such as high yield bonds and foreign debt, the Osterweis Total Return Fund takes a different approach, focusing on safer investment grade bonds. The fund seeks to generate returns through sector rotation and security selection, and when necessary it utilizes futures to hedge against rising interest rates.

Eddy Vataru

Chief Investment Officer – Total Return

Featuring

Eddy Vataru

Chief Investment Officer – Total Return

Eddy Vataru

Chief Investment Officer – Total Return

Prior to joining Osterweis Capital Management in 2016, Eddy Vataru worked in senior management positions at Incapture, LLC and Citadel, LLC. Before that he spent over 11 years at BlackRock (formerly Barclays Global Investors, BGI), where his last position was as Managing Director and Head of U.S. Rates and Mortgages. While in this role, BGI worked with the U.S. Treasury in implementing its Agency MBS Purchase Program, buying mortgages for the U.S. government from 2008-2009.

He is a principal of the firm and the lead Portfolio Manager for the total return fixed income strategy.

Mr. Vataru graduated from California Institute of Technology (B.S. in Chemistry & Economics) and from Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis (M.B.A.). Mr. Vataru holds the CFA designation.

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Mutual fund investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible. Investments in debt securities typically decrease in value when interest rates rise. This risk is usually greater for longer-term debt securities.

The Osterweis Total Return Fund may invest in fixed income securities which are subject to credit, default, extension, interest rate and prepayment risks. It may also make investments in derivatives that may involve certain costs and risks such as liquidity, interest rate, market, credit, management and the risk that a position could not be closed when most advantageous. The Fund may invest in in debt securities that are un-rated or rated below investment grade. Lower-rated securities may present an increased possibility of default, price volatility or illiquidity compared to higher-rated securities. Investments in foreign and emerging market securities involve greater volatility and political, economic and currency risks and differences in accounting methods. These risks may increase for emerging markets. Leverage may cause the effect of an increase or decrease in the value of the portfolio securities to be magnified and the fund to be more volatile than if leverage was not used. Investments in preferred securities have an inverse relationship with changes in the prevailing interest rate. Investments in Asset Backed and Mortgage Backed Securities include additional risks that investors should be aware of such as credit risk, prepayment risk, possible illiquidity and default, as well as increased susceptibility to adverse economic developments. It may also make investments in derivatives that may involve certain costs and risks such as liquidity, interest rate, market, credit, management and the risk that a position could not be closed when most advantageous. The Fund may invest in municipal securities which are subject to the risk of default.

The U.S. News Mutual Fund Score is produced using an equal weighting of the overall ratings provided by Morningstar, Lipper, Zacks, TheStreet.com, and CFRA. Individual fund rating systems are normalized to a 100-point scale based on point totals assigned to individual scoring systems. A fund’s ranking is based on the score relative to the category. While the U.S. News Mutual Fund Score combines all five equally weighted category scores to achieve its weighting, Lipper intends its measures to be used as individual assessments of a fund’s ability to meet specific goals, rather than as a cumulative measure of fund quality. Lipper rankings are comprised of five unique measures (Total Return, Consistent Return, Preservation, Expense, and Tax Efficiency), each with a 1-to-5 score, ranking each fund against its peers. The highest 20% of funds in each peer group are named Lipper Leaders, the next 20% receive a rating of 4, the middle 20% are rated 3, the next 20% are rated 2, and the lowest 20% are rated 1. The overall calculation is based on an equal-weighted average of percentile ranks for each measure over three-, five-, and ten-year periods (if applicable). Lipper Ratings for Total Return reflect funds’ historical total return performance relative to peers. Lipper Ratings for Consistent Return reflect funds’ historical risk-adjusted returns, relative to peers. Lipper Ratings for Preservation reflect funds’ historical loss avoidance relative to other funds within the same asset class. Lipper Ratings for Tax Efficiency reflect funds’ historical success in postponing taxable distributions relative to peers. Lipper Ratings for Expense reflect funds’ expense minimization relative to peers with similar load structures.
The Zacks Mutual Fund Rank ranks funds on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being a Strong Buy and 5 being a Strong Sell. Each quarter, Zacks updates their Mutual Fund Rank by evaluating the average Zacks Rank for the stocks owned by the fund and blending this with other criteria their studies show is beneficial in finding funds that will outperform in the future. In general, the higher the average Zacks Rank for the stocks in the fund, then the higher the Zacks Mutual Fund Rank.

TheStreet.com Ratings Investment Ratings for Funds condense the available fund performance and risk data into a single composite opinion of each fund’s risk-adjusted performance. “A (Buy) Excellent” rating means the fund has an excellent track record of maximizing performance while minimizing risk, thus delivering the best possible combination of total return on investment and reduced volatility. “B (Buy) Good” rating means the fund has a good track record of balancing performance with risk. “C (Hold) Fair” rating ratings means the fund has a track record which is about average. “D (Sell) Weak” rating means the fund has underperformed the universe of other funds given the level of risk in its underlying investments, resulting in a weak risk-adjusted performance. “E (Sell) Very Weak” rating means the fund has significantly underperformed most other funds given the level of risk in its underlying investments, resulting in a very weak risk-adjusted performance. The plus sign (+) is an indication that the fund is in the top third of its letter grade. The minus sign (-) is an indication that the fund is in the bottom third of its letter grade. “U Unrated” rating means the fund does not have sufficient history to make a reliable assessment of its risk-adjusted performance.

The CFRA Rankings range from five-star (highest) to one-star (lowest) and follow a normalized distribution curve, based upon the fund’s rank in its Category. Top 10% receive five stars, next 20% receive four stars, middle 40% receive three stars, next 20% receive two stars, and the bottom 10% receive one star. Rankings are refreshed on a weekly basis to incorporate the latest inputs from the holdings-based analysis and the latest relative performance review.

Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Index performance is not illustrative of fund performance. One cannot invest directly in an index. Please call (866) 236-0050 for fund performance.

Investment grade bonds are bonds with high and medium credit quality assigned by a rating agency. For Standard and Poor’s, investment grade bonds include BBB ratings or higher. For Moody’s, the cutoff is Baa.

High-yield, or “below investment grade” bonds, include bonds with a lower credit rating than investment-grade. These bonds typically pay higher coupons as they are riskier.

The Osterweis Funds are available by prospectus only. The Funds’ investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses must be considered carefully before investing. The summary and statutory prospectuses contain this and other important information about the Funds. You may obtain a summary or statutory prospectus by calling toll free at (866) 236-0050, or by visiting www.osterweis.com/statpro. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing to ensure the Fund is appropriate for your goals and risk tolerance.

Osterweis Capital Management is the adviser to the Osterweis Funds, which are distributed by Quasar Distributors, LLC. [OSTE-20200930-0003]