Q. What do you mean when you say you invest in "growth stocks"?

A. While there are many kinds of growth stocks, we invest only in a small and select group of them. Typically these "great companies in great businesses" are larger, seasoned industry leaders with long track records of well above average revenue and earnings growth produced through a variety of economic environments, good and bad. Prospectively, we believe that they are companies capable of sustaining above average growth rates through at least the next five years. Typically these are companies with excellent financials such as above average return on assets and below average debt to capital that follow conservative accounting practices. They have a strong combination of outstanding management, employees and culture. As a result they are few in number and, when correctly identified, offer very attractive investment opportunities for the long-term investor.

Q. What do you expect your performance to be in the future?

A. We cannot project that precisely, but other things being equal, the value of our clients’ portfolios should grow in line with the earnings of the companies they hold over the long run. Our internal research and valuation work currently projects the weighted, aggregate long-term earnings growth of our portfolio companies to be in the range of 12-15%. By applying our valuation discipline we may also be able to augment this return potential through a modest expansion in our weighted average portfolio PE ratio. The combination of portfolio earnings growth and modest expansion in the PE ratio implies that we can roughly double the value of our clients' portfolios over the next five years. These expectations, of course, depend on many factors including the inflation and interest rate environment remaining relatively benign over the period, as we believe they will.

Q. Why do you have research and portfolio management operations in London and Hong Kong in addition to the US equity research team in Bermuda and New York?

A. Our goal is to be a global investment manager. To achieve this we must be able to identify, analyze and appraise the best high-quality growth companies traded on the world's major markets wherever they are domiciled. Research in London is conducted by our wholly-owned subsidiary, W.P. Stewart & Co. (Europe), Ltd. and research for Asian companies is conducted by Bowen Capital Management, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bowen Asia Ltd., our affiliate in which we have a large minority shareholding. Having one investment philosophy applied consistently in three different regions, and analysts in each of the world's major economic regions functioning as one global research team, gives our clients the opportunity to choose between the alternatives of investing their capital in regional or global strategies.

Q. Who should I contact if I have questions regarding W.P. Stewart?

A. For information regarding our directly managed acounts please call Sarah Morris in our Bermuda office on: + 441-295-8585 (from anywhere) or 1-888-695-4092 (from within the United States) or send an e-mail request to info@wpstewart.com.

For information regarding our investment funds please call Melissa Ruggieri or Marina Morgan in our New York office at 212-750-8585 or send an e-mail request to funds@wpstewart.com.

For information regarding the Company, earnings releases, press releases, SEC filings etc. please see the Investor Relations section of this website or contact our Investor Relations department at: +441-295-8585 (from anywhere) or 1-888-695-4092 (from within the United States). Alternatively, you can e-mail your question or request to IRINFO@wpstewart.com.