Fund to watch: Legg Mason US Smaller Companies

The aim of the Legg Mason US Smaller Companies fund, which was launched almost 11 years ago, is to achieve capital growth by primarily investing in smaller US companies.

Royce & Associates, which manages the portfolio on behalf of Legg Mason, adopted a value approach to managing stocks that it has used for more than four decades.

This means the fund favours investing in companies that are trading significantly below the investment team’'s assessment of their current worth.

It currently has 79 holdings and the 10 largest positions account for just fewer than 20% of assets under management, according to the most recent fund factsheet.

These include The Buckle, Inc, a retailer of casual clothing and footwear that operates around 450 outlets across the US, and MKS Instruments, a global provider of subsystems.

As far as sectors are concerned, industrials and information technology have the largest share with 19% of assets each, followed by consumer discretionary with 13.65% and financials with 10.88%. The others, each of which are worth less than 10%, include energy, materials, healthcare, and consumer staples.

While the overwhelming majority of the geographic breakdown is made up of companies from the United States, there's also a smattering of exposures to Canada, the UK, Norway, Bermuda and Mexico.

This article is for information and discussion purposes only and does not form a recommendation to invest or otherwise. The value of an investment may fall. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.