Baillie Gifford’s Ben James talks to us about US equities and the Baillie Gifford American fund in this week’s podcast. He tells how sticking to the fund’s philosophy and process in challenging markets helped them ‘avoid making knee-jerk reactions to the noise and the sentiment in the market’. He also discusses the US economy and the outlook for its businesses, before going on to tell us the team’s investment case for the likes of Tesla, Netflix, and concludes by telling us about 3 stocks they’re currently finding exciting and why.

What's covered in this episode:

• Thoughts on inflation in the US economy
• Why the fund’s holdings reflect a longer, 5-10-year timeframe
• What the characteristics of ‘resilient’ stocks are
• How and why the team maintained its ‘growth’ investment style despite challenging headwinds
• Why investors should hold US large caps in their portfolios
• Active vs passive investing and how the fund differs from the S&P 500
• Which companies are driving and exploiting structural change
• How healthcare’s acyclicality benefits the portfolio
• Why companies designated as disruptors and engines of growth have a place in the portfolio
• A deep dive on Tesla and Netflix
• Which 3 less well-known companies are exciting the team at the moment

More about this fund:
This US equity fund is one of the purest examples of the Baillie Gifford growth philosophy. It is run by a team of four co-managers who focus on the small number of companies that create exceptional returns. They are looking for the high-performance outliers - those firms that can return at least 150% - and will hold them for the long-term to allow them to generate this return. The average holding period is over 5 years, with many stocks having been held for much longer. The managers will also have conviction in these names, with the largest ten holdings usually accounting for over 50% of the portfolio. These stocks will tap into the trends of the future, such as the continued rise of online retail, the evolution of transportation, innovative healthcare and the ongoing digitisation of the economy and the shift to the cloud.

Learn more on fundcalibre.com

Please remember, we’ve been discussing individual companies to bring investing to life for you. It’s not a recommendation to buy or sell. The fund may or may not still hold these companies at the time of listening. Elite Ratings are based on FundCalibre’s research methodology and are the opinion of FundCalibre’s research team only.

Learn more on fundcalibre.com

Please remember, we’ve been discussing individual companies to bring investing to life for you. It’s not a recommendation to buy or sell. The fund may or may not still hold these companies at the time of listening. Elite Ratings are based on FundCalibre’s research methodology and are the opinion of FundCalibre’s research team only.