These Go to Eleven
September 11, 2025: We examine U.S. equity multiples across various measures which are currently near the record levels that were last seen 25 years ago during the tech bubble. To achieve historic average returns going forward, we would need to see fundamental growth accelerate well beyond prior peaks. This suggests that growth needs to “Go to Eleven”, to borrow from the 1984 movie This is Spinal Tap, in order for investors to have a chance at achieving average historic equity returns.
2025 2Q Letter to Investors: Return Pillars & Valuation Risk
Since May 2017, the S&P 500 has achieved a 14.3% annualized total return, with a significant portion (4.6 percentage points) stemming from valuation expansion, particularly among the largest stocks. The remaining return came from dividends and free cash flow growth. Distillate’s U.S. FSV strategy, which has nearly matched the S&P 500’s performance over this period, did not benefit from this valuation expansion. Instead, its net-of-fee returns were driven by superior underlying free cash flow growth, primarily due to systematically rebalancing into less expensive stocks.
Big Trends Favor Small Stocks
June 11, 2025: Over the long term, smaller stocks have significantly outperformed the largest ones, but have done so with significant cyclicality. Only 15 years ago, larger stocks had underperformed sharply and were strongly favored on valuation before subsequently outperforming substantially. Conditions are reversed today with underperformance of smaller stocks approaching levels in relative performance, valuation, and duration that have given way to powerful reversals and reversions to the mean in the past.
2025 1Q Letter to Investors: Uncertainty
Uncertainty related to tariffs, AI, and the sustainability of federal spending are all creating significant investor unease and market volatility/weakness. While there is much that is unique to the current environment, we do see many parallels to both the macroeconomic and market backdrop of exactly 25 years ago. As we again enter uncertain times, we are optimistic that the combination of a valuation discipline and quality measures may again prove highly differentiating as was the case back then.
Distillate Capital mentioned in “7 Best Stock Fund Managers” in U.S. News & World Report*
March 25, 2025: Distillate Capital mentioned in “7 Best Stock Fund Managers” in U.S. News & World Report. * Third party ratings provided by U.S. News were provided on March 26, 2025. Ratings and assessments were based on the opinion of U.S. News and are not reviewed or ratified by any other third parties. Distillate does not solicit for, nor provide compensation for, any third-party ratings.
2024 4Q Letter to Investors: Prices & Fundamentals Diverging
A disconnect between prices and fundamentals is being driven mostly by just a handful of the largest stocks. Given their enormous weight in the broad benchmarks, the overall market has become much more expensive and there looks to be considerable valuation risk for large U.S. stocks in aggregate as a consequence.
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