As a leading independent investment management firm, Fisher Investments participates primarily in global equity markets. Fisher Investments managed billions across two principal business units - Fisher Investments Institutional Group (FIIG) and Fisher Investments Private Client Group (FIPCG). These groups serve a global client base of diverse investors including corporate, public and multi-employer pension funds, foundations and endowments, insurance companies, healthcare organizations, sovereign wealth funds, governments and high net worth individuals. The firm's Investment Policy Committee (IPC) is responsible for all strategic and tactical investment decisions for both business units. Consisting of the most senior investment professionals of Fisher Investments, the IPC offers clients more than 60 years of combined money management experience.
Fisher Investments has made significant contributions to several areas of investment management through its development of capital markets technology. In the early 1980s, Ken Fisher pioneered the use of the Price to Sales Ratio and detailed its relevance as a tool for investment analysis. Fisher Investments later used this tool to help manage small capitalization portfolios for institutional investors. In the mid-1980s, Fisher Investments contributed to the delineation of the small cap value equity asset class and explained its relevance to investors. In the early 1990s, FI contributed to the recognition of distinct investment styles and cycles and conducted proprietary research aimed at identifying the drivers of these cycles. These advancements became the foundation for a series of broad equity mandate strategies: Global Total Return, U.S. Total Return and Foreign Equity. More recently, the firm has made significant forays into the emerging field of behavioral finance by researching its practical application in the portfolio management process.
Throughout its history, Fisher Investments' objective in portfolio management has been to provide consistent results to its institutional clients. In striving to maintain this core objective, Fisher Investments has developed strategies that can either be implemented immediately or Fisher Investments can combine styles to meet unique needs of the client. Some of the Fisher Investments Institutional Group primary investment strategies include:
- Global Total Return: a top-down investment process that concentrates on the structure of global markets, working on capitalizing on country and sector/industry cycles.
- Foreign Equity: a top-down investment process, attempting to capitalize on country and sector/industry cycles in foreign markets.
- US Total Return: a top-down investment process, striving to capitalize on style and sector cycles in the US.
- Small Cap Value: a bottom-up stock selection process, looking for companies that may be undervalued by the marketplace.