Diversity of Thought Drives Alpha

Montrusco Bolton has been serving institutional clients globally with a high standard of excellence and drive toward leading risk-adjusted returns. The company has thrived due to its core philosophy and consistent, disciplined portfolio management framework.  

The investment team believes that markets work, and assets are priced efficiently in the long term. Yet, human emotions often lead to moments of irrational myopia, resulting in a temporary mispricing of assets. This disconnect is where Montrusco Bolton mines alpha and seeks to generate above-average returns with muted volatility. Investing where its estimates differ from consensus through a longer-term view inherently reveals shorter-term mispricing opportunities.

Here are a few thoughts from the minds behind Montrusco Bolton on some of its keys to success.  

Montrusco Bolton’s diverse investment team brings together individuals with unique perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds. This enhances the team’s creativity and leads to more deeply collaborative and innovative thinking.

These factors lead to differentiated insights, an increased investment opportunity set, and better investment decisions. They also seek to provide superior risk adjusted returns for investors.

Jean David Meloche, CFA

Non-consensus, independent thinking rooted in deep industry knowledge and healthy debate is what makes Montrusco Bolton’s Global Equity Team different. Head of Global Equities and Portfolio Manager Jean David Meloche, CFA, says, “For us, the purpose of building a diverse team culture is that it results in an optimal breeding ground for the best ideas. We have a culture of empowerment and have created a truly entrepreneurial environment where diversity of thought is encouraged, and talent can flourish. Of course, these ideas must be stress-tested and evaluated from multiple perspectives.”

“We find that a team built on independent thinking, rigorous fundamental analysis, and consistent application of our philosophy produces better results.” 

“Our team is composed of investment professionals that have different life experiences coming from various cultural, academic, and working backgrounds,” adds Robert Hiscock, CFA, Assistant Portfolio Manager. “This diversity strengthens our ability to debate and assess investment ideas through multiple angles.” 

One of the best illustrations of the team’s approach to evaluating investments is found in its Quality Growth investment strategy with a foundation of bottom-up research to identify mispriced stocks with looming catalysts.

Robert Hiscock, CFA

In terms of security selection, the most important criteria, in addition to a company’s growth potential and quality, is that the team has an investment thesis indicating why they believe a stock is misunderstood or mismodeled, and hence is mispriced. As a signatory of the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), Montrusco Bolton considers companies that implement strong governance practices and effectively manage the environmental and social impact of their business activities are more likely to generate consistent performance and long-term value for investors and our society. 

Additionally, the team prioritizes big moats, structural advantages, pricing power, disruptive companies, and growth drivers. It also strives to not be influenced by emotions by focusing on objective criteria, while acknowledging and learning from mistakes.

Robert Hiscock explains, “I get my best investment ideas from two sources. One is just by living my everyday life but through an analytical lens, being a consumer of various products and experiences, and seeing the value in them. The other one is diving into various business models and speaking to management teams, asking them about their customers and understanding where the pricing power lies in their supply chain and whether it is shifting.”

“Talking through our divergent viewpoints, using our experience to realize the potential value add from our different perspectives, constantly sharpening our processes, and recognizing and learning from our mistakes through postmortems, is key to our success. We have built an exceptional culture in a unique place that is laser-focused on generating the best ideas for our clients.”

Montreal offers all the advantages, diversity, connections, and resources of a big city. But its distance from Wall Street leads to more independence, clarity of thought, and rigorous application of the investment team’s process. Jean David Meloche says, “Because it is not the financial center of the world, the people you are close to are not talking about stocks, bonds, or a central banker’s comments. It sounds silly but I find it does allow for more independent thinking.”