Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The mission of Diamond Hill is to serve our clients through a disciplined intrinsic-value-based approach to investing, while maintaining a  long-term perspective, and aligning our interests with those of our clients.

To successfully pursue our mission, we are:

  • Committed to the Graham-Buffett investment philosophy, with goals (over 5-year rolling periods) to outperform benchmarks and our peers, and achieve absolute returns sufficient for risk of asset class.
  • Driven by our conviction to create lasting value for clients and shareholders.
  • Motivated through ownership of Diamond Hill funds and company stock.

Consistent with our mission, we make the following pledge to all of our clients:

  • Our investment discipline is to assess the economics of the underlying business, its management, and the price that must be paid to own a piece of it. We seek to concentrate our investments in businesses that are available at prices below intrinsic value and are managed or controlled by trustworthy and capable people. Benjamin Graham pioneered this discipline during the 1930’s and many others have practiced it with great success ever since, most notably Warren Buffett.
  • We will communicate with our clients about our investment performance in a manner that will allow them to properly assess whether we are deserving of their trust.
  • Our investment team will be comprised of people with integrity, sound experience and education, in combination with a strong work ethic and independence of thought. Especially important is that each possesses the highest level of character, business ethics and professionalism.
  • Our employees will enjoy a working environment that supports professional and personal growth initiatives, thereby enhancing employee satisfaction, the productivity of the firm, and the experience of our clients.
  • We will invest the capital you entrust to us with the same care that we invest our own capital. To this end, Diamond Hill employees and affiliates are significant investors in the same portfolios in which our clients invest, and are collectively the largest shareholders in the Diamond Hill Funds. In addition, all Diamond Hill employees are subject to a Code of Ethics, which states that all personal investments must be made in a Diamond Hill fund, unless approved by our Chief Compliance Officer.

Our fundamental investment principles embody this pledge and guide our managers and analysts as they invest capital on behalf of our clients and shareholders.

Learn about our equity principles and our fixed income principles.