The Fund is actively managed using a model-based approach and seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing, under normal market conditions, at least 80% of its net assets, plus borrowings for investment purposes, in equity securities, including common stock, issued by U.S.-based micro and small capitalization publicly listed companies that provide high “shareholder yield.” The Fund’s investment adviser, Cambria Investment Management, L.P. (“Cambria” or the “Adviser”), defines micro and small capitalization companies as companies having a market capitalization between $100 million and $5 billion. Cambria defines “shareholder yield” as the totality of returns realized by an investor from a company’s cash payments for dividends, buybacks and debt paydowns. For the purposes of this strategy, Cambria’s quantitative algorithm calculates a company’s shareholder yield by considering the following characteristics: (i) dividend payments to shareholders, (ii) return of capital in the form of share buybacks (i.e., a company’s repurchase of its own shares from the marketplace, which, in turn, reduces the number of outstanding shares for continuing shareholders or generates proceeds for existing shareholders), and (iii) paydown of a company’s debt (i.e., reducing a company’s outstanding debt). Cambria believes that, while any one of these measures of a company’s cash flows, in isolation, is inadequate to determine the attractiveness of its equity securities, considered together these measures have the potential to result in the construction of a portfolio of companies with higher potential for income and capital appreciation.

No less frequently than on a quarterly basis, utilizing its own quantitative model, Cambria selects the top 20% of stocks in the initial universe of U.S.-based, micro and small capitalization, publicly listed companies based on their shareholder yield, as measured by dividend payments and net share buybacks. Cambria considers an issuer to be U.S.-based if it is domiciled, incorporated, or has substantial business activity in the United States and the primary equity security of such issuer is listed on a major U.S. stock exchange.

Cambria’s quantitative algorithm then factors in the remaining stocks’ debt paydowns and applies a number of value metrics to create a composite, including metrics such as, but not limited to, price-to-book (P/B) ratio, price-to-sales (P/S) ratio, price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, price-to-free cash-flow (P/FCF or P/CF) ratio, and enterprise multiple (EV/EBITDA). The quantitative model then selects between 100 and 300 stocks for inclusion in the Fund’s portfolio that exhibit, in the aggregate, the best combination of shareholder yield characteristics and value metrics. The number of holdings in the Fund will be based on a number of factors, including the asset size of the Fund and the number of companies that satisfy Cambria’s quantitative measurements at any one time.

Although Cambria seeks to weight these stocks equally in the Fund’s portfolio, security weights may fluctuate in response to market conditions and investment opportunities that develop between the model’s quarterly calculations.

As of August 1, 2024, the Fund had significant investment exposure to companies in the consumer discretionary, energy, financials, and industrials sectors; however, the Fund’s sector exposure may change from time to time.

Although the Fund employs a model-based investment approach based on Cambria’s proprietary, quantitative algorithm, the Fund may sell a security when Cambria believes that the security is overvalued or better investment opportunities are available, to invest in cash and cash equivalents, or to meet redemptions. Cambria expects to adjust the Fund’s holdings at least quarterly to meet the investment criteria and target allocations (e.g., security weights) established by the Fund’s quantitative algorithm, but Cambria may adjust the Fund’s holdings more frequently in response to market events that develop between the model’s quarterly calculations.