WFPAX

Special Mid Cap Value Fund

$46.74
NAV

-$0.35 / -0.74%
1-day change
$13,479.8M
Fund assets
1.61%
Year-to-date return
12/31/1998
Fund inception date
Data as of 1/29/2025
Special Mid Cap Value Fund
Fund overview
Pursuing alpha with a CPA-minded approach
The Special Mid Cap Value Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing in mid-cap companies using a disciplined, consistent process that focuses on valuation and stocks with high reward/risk ratios.

Accounting expertise and processes guide decision-making.   

 

Key differentiators 

 

  • Leverages a unique security selection process in the pursuit of compelling returns and a low-risk profile 
  • Performs bottom-up research to find companies with durable competitive advantages, free cash flow generation, and balance sheet flexibility 
  • Uses a disciplined valuation approach to find companies with favorable reward/risk profiles 

General facts

Morningstar category

Mid-Cap Value

Lipper category

Mid-Cap Core Funds

Ticker

WFPAX

CUSIP

949921308

Fund number

3323

Benchmark name

Russell Midcap® Value Index

Gross expense ratio

1.12%

(as of 2/1/2024)

Net expense ratio

1.12%

(as of 2/1/2024)

Dividend frequency

Annually

Active share

91.28

(as of 12/31/2024)

Quick resources

Fact sheet Summary Prospectus Full Prospectus Sales charge guide: Sales sheet

Morningstar Rating™

Out of 392 funds, Mid-Cap Value As of 12/31/2024


An investment’s Overall Morningstar Rating™, based on its risk-adjusted return, is a weighted average of its applicable 3-, 5-, and 10-year Ratings.

From Q4 Expectations to Q1 Impacts

Bryant VanCronkhite, senior portfolio manager and co-head of the Special Global Equity team, kicks off 2025 by answering questions about New Year’s resolutions, the impact of Q4 events and expectations, and what lies ahead.

Transcript

Katie Schmidt: Hi, I'm here with Bryant to talk about what happened in 2024 and see what lies ahead in 2025. Hi, Bryant.

Bryant VanCronkhite: Happy new year, Katie.

Katie: Happy new year. Welcome to 2025. This year has just begun and markets are volatile. But before we dig into the markets, did you make any New Year's resolutions pertaining to the portfolios?

Bryant: I always have the same resolution every year because what I think is important to investment success is always following your disciplined process. The process is what allows you to have confidence in the outcome pattern. So, my resolution every single year is to make sure we don't deviate from the time-tested process that the Special Global Equity team uses. I guess a sub-point to that is that emotions are our biggest enemy when it comes to investment success. So, my other resolution is always to make sure we don't let emotions drive decision making. People all the time try to chase returns based on the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) of what their neighbor has said about how much money they're making on a stock or they decide to sell out of their 401K equities because they're worried about the market falling. Those sorts of emotional biases can ultimately destroy returns. So, for us, follow the process, be unemotional, and drive towards consistent outcomes over the course of 2025.

Katie: Great. Those are excellent resolutions. 2025 is off to a little bit of a bumpy start. What do you see as the setup for the market and what does that mean for the path of returns?

Bryant: I think people were pretty excited about 2025 coming into it. We had this America First policy that's coming into place. You have deregulation in certain sectors that should be good for equity markets. You have lower tax expectations. And so, valuations were pretty high coming in—expectations of the fiscal side high. But counterbalancing that is a Federal Reserve (Fed) who's saying, whoa, I don't know what's going to happen right now. I'm not sure about tariffs. I'm not sure about tax policy. I'm not sure about budget constraints. And so, the Fed's pulling back saying we need to offset some of the optimism with realism. And so, they decide to probably push out rate cuts. And so, this tug of war is happening right now and it's putting pressure on the markets. I think what that means, though, is that the fiscal side has to deliver. Expectations are high for the government to push through policies that are going to drive the economy higher. And if it doesn't happen in the first hundred days, then I think we have a potential for a big reset in the market. So, there's a lot of risk coming in, given where valuations are. But the upside is that the Fed is there to support us. It is there to support the economy. In the event there is a bump in the economy, which I don't think there is right now, I think the Fed will get back into the game, start to cut rates again, and stimulate. But for now, expectations are high and it could result in some early volatility in 2025.

Katie: Great. Thank you so much. And to conclude, are there any sectors that look particularly interesting, given the setup and everything you're considering for entering 2025?

Bryant: Well, one of the industries that I think is in the crosshairs of what people think will be positive Trump-based policies is banks. Back in 2016, during the first election, a lot of the lower tax policies, the deregulation elements, drove a significant increase in the share prices of banks for good reasons. I think that same playbook doesn't work as well this time. Although the tax policy might get extended on the corporate side, I don't think we're going to see significant cuts in tax rates. So, it's not going to be a new positive for banks. Deregulation is a good thing, but I think a lot of the benefits accrue to the larger banks. So, one of my things is what am I worried about, which will be the small and regional banks and the valuation expectation setup there is a little bit optimistic compared to what I think is going to happen in 2025. Now, where am I more positive? Well, I’m sort of running into the fire, so to speak here, with healthcare. I think the nomination of RFK to the healthcare industry, to a leadership role in healthcare, is very concerning for a lot of people. There are some extreme views in many cases and it could put standard policies into question. And valuations across all of healthcare have dropped meaningfully. There are places now for stock pickers to go in there and pick up the scraps, if you will. And so, we don't want to go all in on healthcare right away, but I'm finding areas of CROs, for example, which are clinical research organizations, some of the labs, some of the medical insurance, all very interesting early on here in 2025. So, I think healthcare is appealing and you can be contrarian there, given some of the pullback we've seen late in 2024 and early in 2025.

Katie: Bryant, thanks so much for your time today. That was really insightful regarding healthcare. We'll keep an eye on that and look forward to next time.

Bryant: It was a pleasure. Good to see you.

Katie: Good to see you.

Performance

Average annual returns

Average annual returns

(as of 12/31/2024)
12/31/1998
1M
3M
YTD
1Y
3Y
5Y
10Y
Inception
Fund
NAV POP
-6.76
-3.83
11.59
11.59
5.03
8.87
8.82
11.24
LoadApplied
-12.12
-9.35
5.17
5.17
2.98
7.58
8.17
10.99
Russell Midcap® Value Index
-7.32
-1.75
13.07
13.07
3.88
8.59
8.10
9.30
Lipper Mid-Cap Core Funds
-6.81
-0.88
12.59
12.59
4.25
9.17
8.29
-
Expenses (as of 2/1/2024)
Gross Expense Ratio
1.12 %
Net Expense Ratio
1.12 %

One-month, three-month and year-to-date returns are not annualized.

Figures quoted represent past performance, which is no guarantee of future results, and do not reflect taxes that a shareholder may pay on an investment in a fund. Investment return, principal value, and yields of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Performance shown without sales charges would be lower if sales charges were reflected. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted and assumes the reinvestment of dividends and capital gains. 

Public offering price (POP) is the price of one share of a fund including any sales charges. Net asset value (NAV) is the value of one share of the fund excluding any sales charges. Had sales charges been included, performance would be lower. 

For Class A, the maximum front-end sales charge is 5.75%. Performance including sales charge assumes the sales charge for the corresponding time period. 

Calendar year

Calendar year

(as of 12/31/2024)
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
Fund
11.59
9.14
-4.88
28.24
2.93
35.10
-13.41
10.83
21.16
-3.10
Benchmark
13.07
12.71
-12.03
28.34
4.96
27.06
-12.29
13.34
20.00
-4.78
Morningstar
11.43
13.94
-8.02
29.32
2.63
25.18
-12.86
13.22
18.06
-5.41
Growth of $10,000

Growth of a $10,000 investment

(as of 12/31/2024)

This chart shows the value of a hypothetical $10,000 investment in the fund over the specified time period up to 10 years or since its inception (for funds lacking 10-year records). The result is compared with benchmarks, which may include a broad-based market index and a peer group average or index. Market indexes do not include expenses, which are deducted from fund returns as well as mutual fund averages and indexes.

Does not include sales charges and assumes reinvestment of dividends and capital gains. If sales charges were included, returns would be lower.

Performance and volatility metrics

Performance and volatility metrics

(as of 12/31/2024)
3 Year 5 Year 10 Year
Alpha 1.45 0.77 11.91
Beta 0.85 0.93 0.93
Excess Return 1.14 0.27 0.71
Information Ratio 0.27 0.07 0.20
Sharpe Ratio 0.06 0.31 0.42
R2 0.97 0.97 0.96
Tracking Error 4.19 3.80 3.48
Standard Deviation 17.15 20.68 16.88
Upside Market Capture Ratio 83.29 87.19 85.53
Downside Market Capture Ratio 88.43 95.21 96.11
Morningstar ratings and rankings

Morningstar ratings and rankings

(as of 12/31/2024)
Overall
Mid-Cap Value (Out of 392 funds)
Three Year
53rd percentile (188 out of 392)
Five Year
49th percentile (166 out of 372)
Ten Year
29th percentile (70 out of 289)

The Overall Morningstar Rating for a fund is derived from a weighted-average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five- and ten-year (if applicable) ratings.

Morningstar rankings represent a fund's total return rank relative to all funds that have the same category. The percentile ranking is based on the fund's total return percentile rank relative to all funds that have the same category for the same time period. The highest (most favorable) percentile rank is 1% and the lowest (least favorable) percentile rank is 100%. Morningstar rankings do not include the effect of sales charges. The absolute ranking is based on the fund’s total return rank relative to all funds that have the same category for the same time period. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Prices and distributions

Historical prices
YTD high $47.51 1/21/2025
YTD low $45.03 1/12/2025
52-week high $53.14 12/1/2024
52-week low $43.73 2/5/2024
2024 high $53.14 12/1/2024
2024 low $43.15 1/17/2024
Best quarterly return 19.77% 12/31/2020
Worst quarterly return -31.79% 3/31/2020
Best annual return 35.10% 12/31/2019
Worst annual return -13.41% 12/31/2018

Distribution summary
Dividends Annually
Capital gains Annually

Distribution history

Distribution history Type Per share amount Reinvestment price
2024-12-20 Dividend $0.47913 $46.01
2024-12-12 Long-term capital gain $2.93497 $48.28
2024-12-12 Short-term capital gain $0.25252 $48.28
2023-12-15 Dividend $0.44739 $43.73
2023-12-11 Long-term capital gain $1.7935 $42.94
2023-12-11 Short-term capital gain $0.15301 $42.94
2022-12-15 Dividend $0.32248 $42.99
2022-12-09 Long-term capital gain $3.13277 $43.27
2022-12-09 Short-term capital gain $0.27696 $43.27
2021-12-16 Dividend $0.10815 $47.70
2021-12-09 Long-term capital gain $3.75956 $47.85
2021-12-09 Short-term capital gain $0.97181 $47.85
2020-12-16 Dividend $0.15255 $41.33
2019-12-17 Dividend $0.23163 $40.75
2019-12-10 Long-term capital gain $1.07213 $40.16
2019-12-10 Short-term capital gain $0.32827 $40.16
2018-12-14 Dividend $0.17425 $32.79
2018-12-10 Long-term capital gain $0.58494 $33.55
2017-12-15 Dividend $0.22638 $37.01
2017-12-13 Long-term capital gain $0.84262 $37.19
2017-12-13 Short-term capital gain $0.48155 $37.19
2016-12-14 Dividend $0.18865 $35.28
2016-12-09 Long-term capital gain $0.12903 $35.91
2016-12-09 Short-term capital gain $0.06298 $35.91
2015-12-16 Dividend $0.08435 $29.55
2015-12-11 Long-term capital gain $0.86103 $29.22
2015-12-11 Short-term capital gain $0.26885 $29.22
2014-12-16 Dividend $0.17673 $30.18
2014-12-11 Long-term capital gain $1.84021 $31.04
2014-12-11 Short-term capital gain $1.07068 $31.04
2013-12-16 Dividend $0.09449 $30.11
2013-12-09 Long-term capital gain $1.55753 $30.43
2013-12-09 Short-term capital gain $0.61776 $30.43
2012-12-28 Dividend $0.0473 $23.69
2012-12-13 Dividend $0.17414 $23.59
2011-12-15 Dividend $0.03188 $19.79
2010-12-16 Dividend $0.26975 $20.44
2009-12-17 Dividend $0.17006 $17.11
2008-12-18 Dividend $0.19395 $13.04
2007-12-18 Dividend $0.28439 $19.32
2007-12-14 Long-term capital gain $1.43249 $19.71
2007-12-14 Short-term capital gain $0.45025 $19.71
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Composition

Portfolio statistics

Portfolio statistics

(as of 12/31/2024)
Fund Benchmark
Number of Holdings 68 711
Median Market Cap 17.31 10.68
Dividend Yield 1.91 1.94
P/E (1-year EPS forecast) 15.01 16.12
P/B Ratio 2.14 2.44
EPS Growth 14.59 10.64
Return on Equity 12.91 14.82
Portfolio Turnover 19.32 -

Equity Style Box

(as of 12/31/2024) Overview chart

Placement within the Morningstar Equity Style Box is based on two variables: relative median market capitalization and relative price valuations (price/book and price/earnings) of the fund’s portfolio holdings. These numbers are drawn from the fund’s portfolio holdings figures most recently entered into Morningstar’s database and the corresponding market conditions. The Ownership Zone is represented by a shaded area surrounding the centroid. This zone encompasses 75% of a portfolio’s holdings on an asset-weighted basis and is designed to be a visual measure of how wide-ranging the portfolio is.

Holdings

Top 10 holdings

(as of 12/31/2024)
Security
Fund
CBRE Group, Inc. Class A
3.85%
AerCap Holdings NV
3.18%
Jefferies Financial Group Inc.
2.96%
Arch Capital Group Ltd.
2.90%
Allstate Corporation
2.81%
Republic Services, Inc.
2.80%
Keurig Dr Pepper Inc.
2.77%
Graphic Packaging Holding Company
2.60%
Vulcan Materials Company
2.53%
Brown & Brown, Inc.
2.46%
View All Holdings
Top 10 represents 28.86% of total net assets
Sector allocation

Sector allocation

(as of 12/31/2024)
Type
Fund
Benchmark
Industrials
 20.84% 17.01%
Financials
 20.67% 18.10%
Real estate
 10.37% 9.79%
Health care
 9.84% 8.18%
Materials
 9.53% 6.68%
Consumer staples
 6.87% 5.72%
Utilities
 6.32% 6.99%
Information technology
 6.16% 9.19%
Energy
 5.50% 5.74%
Consumer discretionary
 3.90% 9.28%
Other
 0.00% -
Communication services
 0.00% 3.32%

Sector diversification is a breakdown of the fund's investments based on the S&P Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS), a breakdown of market sectors used by Standard & Poor's. Sector weights are subject to change and may have changed since the date specified. Percent total may not add to 100% due to rounding.

Documents

Literature Details Frequency
Fact Sheet R6, Administrator, C, A, Institutional Quarterly Download
Regulatory Document Details Date
Annual Long Form Financial Statements R6, Institutional, Administrator, C, A 9/30/2024 Download
Annual Report A 9/30/2024 Download
Full Prospectus C, A 2/1/2024 Download
Quarterly Holdings R6, Administrator, C, A, Institutional 6/30/2024 Download
Quarterly Holdings R6, Administrator, C, A, Institutional 12/31/2023 Download
Semi-annual Report R6, Administrator, C, A, Institutional 3/31/2024 Download
Statement of Additional Information R6, Administrator, C, A, Institutional 2/1/2024 Download
Summary Prospectus C, A 10/1/2024 Download
Our team
Meet the investment team

The team follows a fundamental approach of identifying companies with competitive advantages, sustainable free cash flow, and flexible balance sheets, helping deliver long-term capital appreciation.

View Team
James

James Tringas

Co-Head of Special Global Equity
Bryant

Bryant VanCronkhite

Co-Head of Special Global Equity
Shane

Shane Zweck

Portfolio Manager

Key risks

Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Stock values fluctuate in response to the activities of individual companies and general market and economic conditions. Smaller company stocks tend to be more volatile and less liquid than those of larger companies. Consult the fund’s prospectus for additional information on these and other risks.

Contact Us

We look forward to helping you with your investment needs

 

More Contact Options

  
The Morningstar Rating™ for funds, or star rating, is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar risk-adjusted return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product’s monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The Morningstar Rating does not include any adjustment for sales loads. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its 3-, 5-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% 3-year rating for 36–59 months of total returns, 60% 5-year rating/40% 3-year rating for 60–119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% 5-year rating/20% 3-year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent 3-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Some of Morningstar’s proprietary calculations, including the Morningstar Rating™, are not customarily calculated based on adjusted historical returns. However, for new share classes/channels, Morningstar may calculate an extended-performance Morningstar Rating. The extended performance is calculated by adjusting the historical total returns of the oldest share class of a fund to reflect the fee structure of the younger share class/channel, attaching this data to the younger share class’s performance record, and then compounding the adjusted plus actual monthly returns into the extended-performance Morningstar risk-adjusted return for the 3-, 5-, and 10-year time periods. The Morningstar risk-adjusted returns are used to determine the extended-performance Morningstar Rating. The extended-performance Morningstar Rating for this fund does not affect the retail fund data published by Morningstar, as the bell curve distribution on which the ratings are based includes only funds with actual returns. The Overall Morningstar Rating for multi-share funds is based on actual performance only or extended performance only. Once the share class turns three years old, the Overall Morningstar Rating will be based on actual ratings only. The Overall Morningstar Rating for multi-share variable annuities is based on a weighted average of any ratings that are available.

While the inclusion of pre-inception data in the form of extended performance can provide valuable insight into the probable long-term behavior of newer share classes of a fund, investors should be aware that an adjusted historical return can provide only an approximation of that behavior. For example, the fee structures of a retail share class will vary from that of an institutional share class, as retail shares tend to have higher operating expenses and sales charges. These adjusted historical returns are not actual returns. The underlying investments in the share classes used to calculate the pre-performance string likely will vary from the underlying investments held in the fund after inception. Calculation methodologies used by Morningstar may differ from those applied by other entities, including the fund itself.

The manager has contractually committed to certain fee waivers and/or expense reimbursements. Without these reductions, the fund’s returns would have been lower and rankings may have been lower. These reductions may be discontinued.

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Performance for the fund or the class shown may reflect a predecessor fund's or class' performance and may be adjusted to reflect the fund's or class' expenses as applicable.