Core Plus Income Fund Marks 3-Year Anniversary

Weitz Core Plus Income Fund Marks 3-Year Anniversary with Outperformance and 5-Star Overall Morningstar Rating^TM

OMAHA, Neb., August 7, 2017ญญ—Weitz Investment Management, Inc. (weitzinvestments.com), Adviser to the Weitz Funds, is pleased to mark the three year anniversary of the Weitz Core Plus Income Fund (WCPBX, WCPNX), which received a 5-Star Overall Morningstar Rating^TM. The Fund is a tactical, intermediate-term bond portfolio that seeks to provide maximum total return consistent with the preservation of capital. Weitz Core Plus Income Fund’s Institutional Share Class returned 3.70% annualized through its initial 3-year period ended July 31, outpacing its benchmark (Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index) by 99 bps. The Fund’s Institutional Share Class was also in the top 5% of 854 funds in Morningstar’s intermediate-term bond category for the 3-year period ended July 31, 2017.

Given what has been a challenging fixed income environment, marked by historically low interest rates and few bouts of opportunistic credit market volatility, Weitz fixed income co-managers Tom Carney, CFA, and Nolan Anderson are pleased to report strong risk-adjusted and absolute returns for Core Plus Income Fund’s initial three-year period.

“Our investment strategy is simple: seek out the best risk-adjusted return opportunities in the marketplace using a consistent, bottom-up, research-driven investment approach while actively managing both interest rate and credit risk. Over the long term, we believe our consistent and flexible investment approach will enable us to continue generating attractive returns,” Anderson said.

Core Plus Income Fund’s approach consists of investing primarily in a portfolio of high-quality bonds. The Fund is expected to have an overall average maturity of less than 10 years and minimum duration of at least 3½ years, where the co-managers believe they can capture most of the “coupon” returns of long-term bonds with less interest rate risk. The Fund has a broad investment mandate. In addition to widely held benchmark securities such as U.S. treasuries, agency MBS and investment grade corporate bonds, the Fund may invest in high-yield and convertible bonds; preferred and convertible preferred stock; RMBS, CMBS and other ABS securities (e.g., credit card, auto, etc.). Up to 25% of Fund assets may be invested in non-investment grade bonds. In addition, equity-oriented securities can comprise as much as 20% of Fund assets.

“We have and will continue to flex these options when the opportunity arises. We select assets for the portfolio one security at a time based on our view of opportunities in the marketplace, and we are willing to be concentrated in our best ideas,” said Carney.

For more information on Weitz Investment Management or the Weitz Funds, please visit weitzinvestments.com.

About the Weitz Fixed Income Portfolio Managers

Tom Carney, CFA, joined Weitz Investment Management, Inc. in 1995. Tom has co-managed Core Plus Income Fund since its inception (July 31, 2014). Since January 1, 1996, he has also served as portfolio manager of Short Duration Income Fund, Ultra Short Government Fund and Nebraska Tax-Free Income Fund. Tom began his investment career in 1982 at Chiles, Heider & Co., Inc., a regional brokerage firm in Omaha, where he held several positions. In 1986, he became a municipal securities professional with Smith Barney in Omaha. He received a bachelor’s in finance from the University of Nebraska Omaha. Tom has been a CFA^® charterholder since 1999 and was the president of the CFA Society of Nebraska from 2005-2006.

Nolan Anderson joined Weitz Investment Management, Inc. in November 2011. He has co-managed the Core Plus Income Fund since its inception (July 31, 2014) and co-manages Short Duration Income Fund and Ultra Short Government Fund. Prior to joining Weitz, Nolan performed financial modeling and due diligence on leveraged buyout transactions for Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco and worked as a commercial real estate research analyst for Woodmen of the World Life Insurance Society in Omaha (2004-2007). He holds a bachelor’s in real estate and land use economics and an MBA from the University of Nebraska Omaha.

About Weitz Investment Management

Founded by value investor Wally Weitz in 1983, Weitz Investment Management, Inc. is a boutique, employee-owned asset management firm headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska.

Over the past three decades, Weitz has leveraged its research-driven approach to capitalize on opportunities that arise out of market inefficiencies. Decisions are backed by thorough research, logical strategies, extensive debate and our team’s personal commitment to long-term results.

We build and manage concentrated, high-conviction, actively managed portfolios. Through bottom-up, proprietary research that emphasizes fundamentals, we focus on creating positive results over the long term and offer a variety of options for investors with different investment objectives.

The Weitz family of funds includes the Value Fund (WVAIX and WVALX), Partners Value Fund (WPVIX and WPVLX), Partners III Opportunity Fund (WPOPX and WPOIX), Hickory Fund (WEHIX), Balanced Fund (WBALX), Core Plus Income Fund (WCPBX and WCPNX), Short Duration Income Fund (WEFIX and WSHNX), Ultra Short Government Fund (SAFEX) and Nebraska Tax-Free Income Fund (WNTFX).

Performance data represents past performance, which does not guarantee future results. The investment return and the principal value of an investment in the Fund will fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than the original cost. Current performance may be higher or lower than the performance data quoted. Performance data current to the most recent month end may be obtained at weitzinvestments.com. 

Returns assume reinvestment of dividends and redemption at the end of each period, and reflect the deduction of annual operating expenses. Returns also include fee waivers and/or expense reimbursements, if any; total returns would have been lower had there been no waivers or reimbursements. 

*The Investment Adviser has agreed in writing to waive its fees and reimburse certain expenses (excluding taxes, interest, brokerage costs, acquired fund fees and expenses and extraordinary expenses) to limit the total annual fund operating expenses for Institutional Class shares and Investor Class shares to 0.40% and 0.60%, respectively, of each Class’s average daily net assets through July 31, 2018.

Index performance is hypothetical and is shown for illustrative purposes only. Comparative returns are the average returns for the applicable period of the reflected index. The Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index is a broad-based benchmark that measures the investment grade, U.S. dollar-denominated, fixed-rate taxable bond market.

© 2017 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

The Morningstar Rating_^TM for funds, or "star rating", is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product's monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% three-year rating for 36-59 months of total returns, 60% five-year rating/40% three-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% five-year rating/20% three-year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent three-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods.

Core Plus Income Fund was rated against the following numbers of Intermediate-Term Bond funds over the following time periods: 854 funds in the last three years. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

The Weitz Core Plus Income Fund’s Institutional Share Class had a 3-year percentile ranking of 5 out of 854 intermediate-term bond funds as of July 31, 2017.

Investors should consider carefully the investment objectives, risks and charges and expenses of the Funds before investing. The Funds' Prospectus contains this and other information about the Funds and should be read carefully before investing. The Prospectus is available from Weitz Investment Management, 1125 South 103rd Street, Suite 200, Omaha, NE 68124-1071, weitzinvestments.com, or (800) 304-9745. Weitz Securities, Inc. is the distributor of the Weitz Funds.

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