To pursue its investment objective, the Fund invests, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its net assets plus borrowings for investment purposes in the equity securities of small capitalization companies. Small capitalization companies are defined as companies with market capitalizations within the range of those companies in the Russell 2000® Index at the time of purchase. As of December 31, 2023, the smallest company in the Russell 2000® Index had a market capitalization of $10 million and the largest company had a market capitalization of $15 billion. The Fund invests primarily in U.S. traded equity securities of small capitalization companies. The term “U.S. traded equity securities” refers to domestically traded U.S. common stocks (including securities of real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) and exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”)), and U.S. traded equity stocks of foreign companies. The Fund may invest in securities of middle and large capitalization companies.

Sterling Capital applies “behavioral finance” principles in the construction of the Fund’s portfolio. Behavioral finance theorizes that investment decisions are often influenced by biases, heuristics (i.e., experienced-based techniques for decision making) and emotion, and that investors can be predictable (and, at times, irrational) in their decision making. These emotionally charged investment decisions can lead to stock price anomalies that create opportunities in the marketplace. Sterling Capital seeks to capitalize on these behaviorally driven market anomalies by employing a disciplined investment process. In implementing behavioral finance principles, Sterling Capital ranks companies in the Fund’s investment universe based on a number of factors that it believes can be indicators of under- or over-valuation of a security by the market, such as valuation (e.g., seeking to invest in companies that Sterling Capital believes are undervalued), price momentum (e.g., identifying securities that Sterling Capital believes will experience sustained positive price momentum) and earnings revisions (e.g., identifying and capitalizing on what Sterling Capital believes are under-reactions by the market to positive earnings revisions). Sterling Capital also takes into account such factors as market capitalization, country exposure, and sector exposure to construct a diversified portfolio. Sterling Capital considers selling a security when the security’s ranking becomes less attractive and/or in light of liquidity, sector exposure, country exposure or diversification considerations.