Destocking Your Portfolio
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Destocking Your Portfolio Why investors concerned about frothy stock valuations and volatility may want to consider equity alternatives like convertible and high yield bonds. After a strong market advance, prudent investors looking to adjust their portfolios need to weigh their need and ability to tolerate volatility. That translates to putting more emphasis on a manager’s risk-adjusted returns and rethinking the idea of just allocating to high-quality bonds when they can’t afford to do so. They will have to embrace higher volatility to generate the long-term returns they need to maintain spending through retirement. Where else can investors turn to achieve the growth their portfolios require? Consider convertible and high yield bonds. Convertibles and high yield may not cushion against declining equity markets the way Treasuries and investment grade bonds do, but in a lower for longer rate environment, their potential return generation merits closer examination. Enter two five-star funds: the Virtus AllianzGI Convertible Fund and the Virtus Seix High Yield Fund. While those ratings are explained below, here’s how the funds’ risk/return, upside/downside, and correlation compare to the S&P 500® Index: THE CONVERTIBLES AND HIGH YIELD DASHBOARD Virtus Since Virtus Seix HY PM AllianzGI Virtus S&P Inception (March 2007– Convertible Seix 500® June 2021) Institutional High Yield I Index Return 11.92% 6.05% 10.36% Standard Deviation 13.37% 8.32% 15.47% Sharpe Ratio 0.85 0.65 0.66 Sortino Ratio 1.35 0.91 0.98 Up Capture 86% 44% 100% Down Capture 69% 35% 100% Beta (S&P 500) 0.76 0.40 1.00 Correlation (S&P 500) 0.88 0.73 1.00 Correlation (B.B. U.S. Agg) 0.12 0.24 0.03 Past performance is not indicative of future results. Source: Allianz Global Investors US LLC and Morningstar Direct. Data as of 6/30/21 � When analyzing beta, correlations, and capture profiles, you can see convertible bonds have produced more equity-like returns than high yield bonds; Virtus AllianzGI Convertible captured 42% more of the upside of the S&P 500 than Virtus Seix High Yield. � Virtus AllianzGI Convertible’s beta is 0.76 vs. 0.40 for Virtus Seix High Yield. Within a broader portfolio context, investors looking to take some equity risk off the table may find convertibles attractive because you don’t alter the beta profile of the equity portfolio significantly. High yield bonds may offer much better downside mitigation, but they do give up a bit of return on the upside. Comparing Convertible Bonds and High Yield Bonds Convertibles are hybrid securities that combine equity and debt features. Through convertible securities, the investor participates in an equity’s price appreciation with more limited downside risk. The debt feature of a convertible bond is derived from the convertible’s stated coupon and claim to principal. The debt feature protects the convertible from a full decline in the price of the equity. � An investor looking to trim some risk but maintain exposure to the equity risk premium can utilize convertible bonds to maintain an attractive level of upside to the S&P with historically less downside—The Virtus AllianzGI Convertible Fund, for instance, has shown 86.3% upside with 70.6% downside since inception (using monthly data from 5/1993 to 6/2021), according to Morningstar. � High yield bonds have offered an attractive risk-adjusted return to investors and certainly come with equity- beta but capture much less of the movement of the equity market when compared to convertible bonds. Historically, they have captured much less of the upside of the equity market, and have also captured much less of the downside. The Virtus Seix High Yield Fund captured 39% upside and 38% downside over the past 10 years, as of 6/30/21. Here are two ways to look at the risk-adjusted returns of convertible bonds and high yield bonds, relative to equities. ATTRACTIVE RISK/RETURN PROFILES LED BY CONVERTIBLES AS AN EQUITY SURROGATE 10 Years Ended June 30, 2021 Since Virtus Seix PM Inception March 1, 2007–June 30, 2021 15 15 Virtus AllianzGl Convertible Inst S&P 500® Virtus AllianzGl Convertible Inst ® 10 Index 10 S&P 500 Index Virtus Seix High Yield I Virtus Seix High Yield I Return (%) 5 Return (%) 5 BBgBarc U.S. Agg Bond Index BBgBarc U.S. Agg Bond Index 0 0 0 5 10 15 0 5 10 15 20 Standard Deviation (%) Standard Deviation (%) Past performance is not indicative of future results. Source: Allianz Global Investors US LLC and Morningstar Direct. HOW THE CONVERTIBLE AND HIGH YIELD FUNDS HAVE PERFORMED IN VARIOUS EQUITY ENVIRONMENTS Average Monthly Return (%), Up Months, and Down Months 2.8 3.3 1.4 Virtus Seix High Yield I Virtus AllianzGI Convertible Institutional S&P 500® Index -1.4 -2.8 -4.0 117 Up Months 55 Down Months Past performance is not indicative of future results. Source: Allianz Global Investors US LLC and Morningstar. Data for Virtus AllianzGI Convertible Fund from January 1, 2001. Data for Virtus Seix High Yield Fund based on the current portfolio managers’ start date on March 2007. 2 Why Invest? AllianzGI Seix Tenure and � Preeminent manager in the � 24+ years in high yield 1 experience of the convertible bond market. management. investment teams � Experienced team that follows � Consistent leadership of key a disciplined approach that has investment personnel. delivered strong returns in all � “Senior sector specialists;” credit market environments. analysts are not generalists. Proven investment � The investment team seeks to � Entire credit research process is 2 philosophy and identify companies poised to focused on assessing default risk. process benefit from positive fundamental � Quantitative risks are monitored change and are projected to meet by Bloomberg AIM system. or exceed market expectations. � Analysts examine issuers’ adherence to covenants. Disciplined, � A disciplined, fundamental � The team seeks to create value 3 fundamental, bottom-up research process through a sound, transparent, and bottom-up research facilitates the early identification repeatable process that leverages of issuers demonstrating an ability Seix’s competitive advantages and to improve their fundamental aims to capture upside potential characteristics, exceed minimum while limiting downside risk. credit statistics, and exhibit � Critical to achieving this is in- the highest visibility of future depth fundamental, bottom-up expected operating performance. credit analysis and a strict sell discipline. Focused on � The investment team is skilled � The team has demonstrated ways 4 favorable risk/ in identifying and investing in to enhance potential income and return profile convertible securities with an total return, lower interest rate asymmetric risk/reward profile volatility, and diversify risk in that strives to participate in the fixed income portfolios. upside potential of the underlying equity while providing downside protection. The Takeaway While stocks have outperformed bonds over time, there have been very long stretches where this relationship has been upside down. The more you appreciate these factors and the randomness of returns over shorter time frames, the more you must also appreciate the timeless merits of diversification, rebalancing, and differentiated active management. Consider convertible and high yield bonds’ potential to check all three of those boxes. 3 AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS (%) as of 6/30/21 Virtus AllianzGI Convertible Fund n Fund Class Institutional n Index 46.39 45.75 25.32 21.97 21.22 18.86 -1.40 13.63 12.85 11.90 9.74 6.90 4.95 3.67 3.92 QTD YTD 1 Year 3 Year 5 Year 10 Year Since Inception (4/19/93) Performance data quoted represents past performance. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted. Please visit virtus.com for performance data current to the most recent month end. This share class has no sales charges and is not available to all investors. Other share classes have sales charges. See virtus.com for details. The fund class gross expense ratio is 0.79%. The net expense ratio is 0.71%, which reflects a contractual expense reimbursement in effect through 2/1/2023. Average annual total return is the annual compound return for the indicated period and reflects the change in share price and the reinvestment of all dividends and capital gains. Returns for periods of one year or less are cumulative returns. Index: The ICE BofA U.S. Convertibles Index tracks the performance of publicly issued U.S. dollar denominated convertible securities of U.S. companies. The index is calculated on a total return basis. The index is unmanaged, its returns do not reflect any fees, expenses, or sales charges, and is not available for direct investment. Virtus Seix High Yield Fund n Fund Class I n Index 13.95 13.44 7.73 7.25 7.39 7.23 6.99 6.80 6.43 5.84 2.88 2.65 2.57 2.29 QTD YTD 1 Year 3 Year 5 Year 10 Year Since Inception (12/29/00) Performance data quoted represents past performance. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted. Please visit virtus.com for performance data current to the most recent month end. This share class has no sales charges and is not available to all investors. Other share classes have sales charges. See virtus.com for details.