Proprietary research lies at the heart of ClearBridge's investment process. Its experienced portfolio managers each have their own distinct investment processes and priorities when managing their portfolios, but they all share a fundamental approach to security selection and valuation analysis.
Fundamental research is carried out by ClearBridge's sector-specific research team and serves as a crucial shared resource, helping managers to find potential new investments and to conduct constant surveillance of their current portfolio holdings. In general, their work focuses on analysing a company's balance sheet, income statement and cash flows, and uses fundamental inputs to model future results. These inputs are based on discussion with, and analysis of, customers, suppliers, distributors and competitors in the industry.
Many of ClearBridge's portfolio managers have strong backgrounds in fundamental analysis themselves, and will typically conduct their own research and analysis, including regular interaction with senior corporate management teams, in addition to that produced by the firm's researchers.