OREANDA-NEWS. Jupiter US Smaller Companies (JUS) is a specialist small- and mid-cap fund focused on the US market. It has been managed since 2001 by Robert Siddles (as F&C US Smaller Companies until both manager and trust transferred to Jupiter Asset Management in early 2014). The manager has a strong valuation focus and seeks to invest in companies that have a good franchise, significant inside ownership, high free cash flow, pricing power and at least 50% share price upside. While US market performance has been led by large-cap and growth stocks in recent years, JUS has a solid long-term track record (annualised returns of c 7-8% over 10 years in both share price and NAV terms) and proven defensive characteristics in volatile markets.

At 2 June, JUS's shares were trading at a 10.9% discount to cum-income net asset value. While wider than long-term averages, this is a little narrower than the 11.6% average over 12 months, reflecting a period in which value stocks have been less favoured by investors. Share buybacks since the end of 2015 have helped to keep the discount broadly below the target maximum of 10%, and there is scope for it to narrow further (the five-year average is 3.8%) should early signs of style rotation continue.

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