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DODEX
Emerging Markets Stock Fund
Overview
Objectives
Dodge & Cox Emerging Markets Stock Fund seeks long-term growth of principal and income.
Investment approach
This Fund offers investors a highly selective, actively managed emerging market equity fund that invests in companies of any size, primarily in emerging and frontier markets, based on our analysis of companies’ fundamentals relative to their current valuations. Generally, we:
- Target a diversified portfolio of equity securities issued by small-, mid-, and large-cap companies from emerging or frontier market countries that, in our opinion, appear to be temporarily undervalued by the stock market but have a favorable outlook for long-term growth. Emerging market issuers include those located in emerging market countries and those we determine to have significant economic exposure to emerging market countries.
- Select individual securities based on our analyses of various factors—including a company’s financial strength, economic condition, competitive advantage, quality of the business franchise, financially material environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, and the reputation, experience, and competence of its management—as weighed against valuation.
Distributions
Dividends and capital gains (if any) are distributed annually in December.
Performance
- Monthly
- Quarterly
Portfolio
Meet the Fund’s Investment Committee
We believe investors benefit from our team-based approach to managing investments. Through close collaboration and debate, we bring our best ideas forward. The primary responsibilities of the Committee, whose members’ average tenure at Dodge & Cox is 18 years, include:
- Setting and reviewing emerging markets investment strategy, and continually assessing opportunities and risks to the portfolio.
- Evaluating and debating analyst recommendations to make buy, sell, and position-sizing decisions across individual holdings, sectors, and countries.
- Overseeing the strategy’s implementation, making changes when appropriate.
Our Committee members are shareholders of Dodge & Cox and invest in the Emerging Market Stock Fund.
Documents
Literature
Regulatory Documents
You could lose money by investing in the Fund, and the Fund could underperform other investments. You should expect the Fund’s share price and total return to fluctuate within a wide range. The Fund’s performance could be hurt by:
Equity risk. Equity securities can be volatile and may decline in value because of changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of their issuers or other events affecting their issuers.
Market risk. Investment prices may increase or decrease, sometimes suddenly and unpredictably, due to general market conditions. Local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, the spread of infectious illness or other public health issue, recessions, inflation, or other events could also have a significant impact on the Fund and its investments and potentially increase the risks described herein.
Manager risk. Dodge & Cox’s opinion about the intrinsic worth or creditworthiness of a company or security may be incorrect or the market may continue to undervalue the company or security. Depending on market conditions, Dodge & Cox’s investing style may perform better or worse than portfolios managed with a different investment style. Dodge & Cox may not make timely purchases or sales of securities for the Fund. The Fund may underperform the broad market, relevant indices, or other funds with similar objectives and investment strategies. Financial models used by the Fund to help identify potential investments may not adequately account for all relevant factors, may rely on inaccurate data inputs or assumptions, or may contain design flaws which could negatively impact the Fund’s performance.
Emerging markets risk. Emerging market securities may present issuer, market, currency, liquidity, volatility, valuation, legal, political, and other risks different from, and potentially greater than, the risks of investing in securities of issuers in more developed markets. Emerging markets may have less established legal, accounting, and financial reporting systems than those in more developed markets, which may reduce the scope or quality of financial information available to investors. In addition, companies in emerging markets may be subject to less stringent standards on disclosure, accounting and financial reporting, and recordkeeping, which may affect the Fund’s ability to evaluate potential and current investments. Relatedly, securities of companies in emerging markets that are listed on exchanges may be delisted if they do not meet relevant accounting standards and auditor oversight requirements, which could significantly decrease the liquidity and value of the securities. Governments in emerging market countries may exercise greater control over their financial markets, more frequently make significant changes to economic policy, be less stable and be more likely to take extra- legal action with respect to companies, industries, assets, or foreign ownership than those in more developed markets. Moreover, investor protection regimes may be more limited in emerging markets. For example, it may be more difficult for shareholders to bring derivative litigation or for U.S. regulators to bring enforcement actions against issuers in emerging markets. Emerging market securities may also be more volatile, more difficult to value, and have lower overall liquidity than securities economically tied to U.S. or developed non-U.S. markets.
Frontier market risk. Frontier markets generally have smaller economies and less mature capital markets than emerging markets. As a result, the risks associated with investing in emerging market countries are magnified in frontier markets. Frontier markets are more susceptible to abrupt changes in currency value, have less mature settlement practices, and can have lower trading volumes that can lead to more price volatility and lower liquidity.
Non-U.S. investment risk. Securities of non-U.S. issuers (including ADRs, ADSs, GDRs, and other securities that represent interests in a non-U.S. issuer’s securities) may be more volatile, harder to value, and have lower overall liquidity than U.S. securities. Non-U.S. issuers may be subject to political, economic, or market instability, or unfavorable government action in their local jurisdictions or economic sanctions or other restrictions imposed by U.S. or foreign regulators. There may be less information publicly available about non-U.S. issuers and their securities, and those issuers may be subject to lower levels of government regulation and oversight. Non-U.S. stock markets may decline due to conditions specific to an individual country, including unfavorable economic conditions relative to the United States. The Fund generally holds non-U.S. securities and cash in foreign banks and securities depositories, which may be recently organized or new to the foreign custody business and may be subject to only limited or no regulatory oversight. There may be increased risk of delayed transaction settlement. These risks may be higher when investing in emerging and frontier markets. Certain of these elevated risks may also apply to securities of U.S. issuers with significant non-U.S. operations.
Non-U.S. currency risk. Non-U.S. currencies may decline relative to the U.S. dollar, which reduces the unhedged value of securities denominated in or otherwise exposed to those currencies. Dodge & Cox may not hedge or may not be successful in hedging the Fund’s currency exposure. Dodge & Cox may not be able to determine accurately the extent to which a security or its issuer is exposed to currency risk. Emerging and frontier market currencies may be more volatile than currencies of more developed countries.
China investment risk.Investments in Chinese securities may be more vulnerable to political and economic risks than investments in securities from other countries. The Chinese government has historically exercised substantial control over China’s economy and financial markets. Although economic reforms have recently liberalized trade policy and reduced government control, changes in these policies could adversely affect Chinese companies or investments in those companies. Changes in government policy could also substantially affect the value of China’s currency relative to the U.S. dollar. The Chinese economy is highly dependent on exporting products and services and could experience a significant slowdown if there is a reduction in global demand for Chinese exports or as the result of trade tensions with the United States or other key trading partners. The Fund may obtain exposure to a Chinese company by investing in legal structures known as variable interest entities (“VIEs”) that offer economic exposure to, but not an equity ownership in, a Chinese company. Intervention by the Chinese government with respect to VIE structures could significantly affect the value of a VIE investment and could negatively impact Fund performance; and due to different legal standards in China, the Fund may be unable to enforce its rights with respect to holdings in Chinese securities. In addition, strained international relations, including purchasing restrictions, sanctions, tariffs or cyberattacks on the Chinese government or Chinese companies may impact China’s economy and Chinese issuers of securities in which the Fund invests. Separately, information about the Chinese securities in which the Fund invests may be less reliable or complete; and Chinese companies with securities listed on U.S. exchanges may be delisted if they do not meet U.S. accounting standards and auditor oversight requirements, which could significantly decrease the liquidity and value of the securities.
Geographic risk. From time to time the Fund may invest a substantial amount of its assets in issuers located in a single country or a limited number of countries. If the Fund focuses its investments in this manner, risks relating to economic, political and social conditions in those countries will have a significant impact on its investment performance. The Fund’s investment performance may be more volatile if it focuses its investments in certain countries, especially emerging market or frontier market countries.
Liquidity risk. The Fund may not be able to purchase or sell a security in a timely manner or at desired prices or achieve its desired weighting in a security. Liquidity risk may be greater in emerging and frontier markets than in more developed markets.
Small-capitalization securities risk. Small-capitalization companies may be more volatile and subject to greater short term risk than larger, more established companies. They are likely to be less liquid than companies with larger market capitalizations, which could affect the overall liquidity of the Fund’s portfolio. In addition, smaller companies may have more limited product lines or markets, be less financially secure, and depend on a more limited management group than larger companies. It may be difficult to evaluate the potential for long-term growth of smaller companies.
Derivatives risk. Investing with derivatives, such as equity index futures, equity options, and total return swaps, and other similar investments (collectively referred to as “derivatives”) involves risks additional to and possibly greater than those associated with investing directly in securities. The value of a derivative may not correlate to the value of the underlying instrument to the extent expected. A derivative can create leverage because it can result in exposure to an amount of a security, index, or other underlying investment (a “notional amount”) that is substantially larger than the derivative position’s market value. Often, the upfront payment required to enter into a derivative is much smaller than the potential for loss, which for certain types of derivatives, including the sale of call options, may be unlimited. The Fund may not be able to close a derivatives position at an advantageous time or price. As a result, the Fund may be required to continue making required margin and settlement payments and, if the Fund has insufficient cash on hand to meet such requirements, it may have to sell securities from its portfolio at a time when it may be disadvantageous to do so. For over-the- counter derivatives transactions, the counterparty may be unable or unwilling to make required payments and deliveries, especially during times of financial market distress. Derivatives also can create operational and legal risk. Changes in regulation relating to a mutual fund’s use of derivatives and related instruments may make derivatives more costly, limit the availability of derivatives, or otherwise adversely affect the value or performance of derivatives and the Fund.
Large shareholder risk. Ownership of shares of the Fund may be concentrated in one or a few large investors. Such investors may redeem shares in large quantities or on a frequent basis. Redemptions by a large investor may affect the performance of the Fund, may increase realized capital gains, may accelerate the realization of taxable income to shareholders, and may increase transaction costs. These transactions potentially limit the use of any capital loss carry-forwards and certain other losses to offset future realized capital gains (if any). Such transactions may also increase the Fund’s expenses. In addition, the Fund may be delayed in investing new cash after a large shareholder purchase, and under such circumstances may be required to maintain a larger cash position than it ordinarily would.
An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency.
There are further risk factors described elsewhere in the Prospectus(opens in a new tab) and in the Statement of Additional Information(opens in a new tab).
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index captures large and mid-cap representation across 27 Emerging Markets (EM) countries. The MSCI information may only be used for your internal use, may not be reproduced or redisseminated in any form and may not be used as a basis for or a component of any financial instruments or products or indices. None of the MSCI information is intended to constitute investment advice or a recommendation to make (or refrain from making) any kind of investment decision and may not be relied on as such. Historical data and analysis should not be taken as an indication or guarantee of any future performance analysis, forecast or prediction. The MSCI Information is provided on an ''as is'' basis and the user of this information assumes the entire risk of any use made of this information. MSCI, each of its affiliates and each other person involved In or related to compiling, computing or creating any MSCI information (collectively, the ''MSCI Parties'') expressly disclaims all warranties (including, without limitation, any warranties of originality, accuracy, completeness, timeliness, non-infringement, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose) with respect to this information. Without limiting any of the foregoing, in no event shall any MSCI Party have any liability for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, punitive, consequential (including, without limitation, lost profits) or any other damages. (www.msci.com)
Expense reimbursements have been in effect for the Fund since its inception. Without the expense reimbursements, returns for the Fund would have been lower.
Data is stated in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise noted.
Portfolio Turnover is calculated as the lesser of the portfolio purchases or sales divided by the average portfolio value for the period.
Footnotes
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1
The Net Expense Ratio for the Emerging Markets Stock Fund is 0.70% and the Gross Expense Ratio is 1.24%. Dodge & Cox has contractually agreed to reimburse the Fund for all ordinary expenses to the extent necessary to maintain Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses at 0.70% until April 30, 2026. This agreement cannot be terminated prior to April 30, 2026 other than by resolution of the Fund’s Board of Trustees. For purposes of the foregoing, ordinary expenses shall not include nonrecurring shareholder account fees, fees and expenses associated with Fund shareholder meetings, fees on portfolio transactions such as exchange fees, dividends and interest on short positions, fees and expenses of pooled investment vehicles that are held by the Fund, interest expenses and other fees and expenses related to any borrowings, taxes, brokerage fees and commissions and other costs and expenses relating to the acquisition and disposition of Fund investments, other expenditures which are capitalized in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and other non-routine expenses or extraordinary expenses not incurred in the ordinary course of the Fund’s business, such as litigation expenses. The term of the agreement will automatically renew for subsequent three-year terms unless terminated with at least 30 days’ written notice by either party prior to the end of the then-current term. The agreement does not permit Dodge & Cox to recoup any fees waived or payments made to the Fund for a prior year.
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2
The Fund’s portfolio holdings are subject to change without notice. The mention of specific securities is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any particular security and is not indicative of Dodge & Cox’s current or future trading activity.
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3
The Fund may classify a company or issuer in a different category than the Index. The Fund usually classifies a company or issuer based on its country of risk, but may designate a different country in certain circumstances. A company or issuer located in a developed market country may still be considered an “emerging markets issuer” for other purposes if it has significant economic exposure to emerging markets.
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4
Excludes derivatives.