Have you ever purchased something that makes you wonder how you survived without it before?
Every time I discuss this new stock portfolio we are now offering; I wonder why it took so long to develop it.
I keep thinking….
- We know that biodiversity makes for stronger and healthier ecosystems….
- We rotate crops because over farming one crop depletes the soil of nutrients….
- We know that “eating the rainbow” gives us the best opportunity to obtain the large variety of nutrients we need for a healthy body….
So again, every time I discuss this investment option, I kick myself for not doing it sooner.
We now are offering a GENDER LENS stock portfolio!!!!
Because based on my examples above, why wouldn’t a more diverse company perform better than a less diverse company?
Turns out, for the most part, they do….
In 2015 McKinsey published Why Diversity Matters, which found that companies in the top quartile of gender diversity on executive teams were 21% more likely to outperform on profitability and 27% more likely to have superior value creation.
Their 2019 report showed a 48% performance difference between the most and least gender-diverse companies.
Again, it seems so obvious now.
Here is the methodology behind the portfolio….
We started with the universe of stocks, roughly 5500, and put them through many initial screens, here are just a few:
- Eliminated companies with 10% or more in revenue derived from countries that are unfriendly towards women in the Women, Peace & Security Index
- Eliminated companies that we know force arbitration for sexual harassment
- Eliminated companies with no women on the board
- Eliminated companies with low diversity on the board and no women in executive leadership
- Eliminated companies with low Diversity Score based on MITs Culture 500 reviews
- Eliminated companies with low LGBTQIA+ scores
- Eliminated companies with severe discrimination violations
Then we took the companies through our rigorous financial screens to look for things like this:
- Those that have improving fundamentals and valuations or are positioned to break out higher
- Those that are in and are likely to stay in a stable uptrend
- Those that are staying in a tight trading range, but are paying an attractive dividend
- Those that have dropped significantly, have much improved valuations and will likely move much higher over the long term
And finally, we score companies based on the blend of 4 factors:
- Percent of women on boards
- Percent of women in executive leadership
- Diversity score (from Culture 500)
- Median wage (ratio between CEO and Median wage of employees)
And while past performance doesn’t guarantee anything, the hypothetical stats on this portfolio are as promising as the research shows. From 5/31/2021 to 5/31/2022 this portfolio outperformed the Russell 3000 by 12.52% and YTD outperformed by 12.62%.
So if this sounds even a little appealing to you, or you know someone people who might be interested, shout from the mountaintops, share with your friends, I want to meet all of you yesterday. You are my people, here is my calendar