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Core Plus Bond Strategy

We believe successful, long-term fixed income investing starts with small, individual security decisions.

Fact Sheet
Commentary
Supplemental Data
All strategy documents

Team

Group Item Count: 4
set at runtime

Arthur Cheng, CFA

Portfolio Manager

Group Item Count: 4
set at runtime

Henry Song, CFA

Portfolio Manager

Group Item Count: 4
set at runtime

Mark Jackson, CFA

Portfolio Manager

Group Item Count: 4
set at runtime

Douglas Gimple

Senior Portfolio Specialist

Philosophy and process highlights

We believe careful selection of undervalued securities and spread sectors offering incremental yield and total return relative to the index is the best way to generate successful long-term investment outcomes.

We focus on securitized products as we believe this differentiated approach provides more opportunities to achieve higher credit quality while maintaining a yield advantage as compared to those invested in government or corporate credit-focused strategies.

We constantly look for value-add opportunities, which can lead to allocations outside of the benchmark with a focus on the securitized market.

Learn more about our philosophy and process

Related insights

Core Plus Bond Composite

Returns

Period and Annualized Total Returns (%) As of 31 Jan 2026
Since Inception
(31 Dec 2024)		 1YYTD3MOJan
Gross of Fees 8.39 8.18 0.35 1.15 0.35
Net of Fees 7.96 7.75 0.32 1.05 0.32
Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index 6.83 6.85 0.11 0.58 0.11
Swipe or scroll right for more data
Period and Annualized Total Returns (%) As of 31 Dec 2025
Since Inception
(31 Dec 2024)		 1YYTD4Q25
Gross of Fees 8.74 8.74 8.74 1.26
Net of Fees 8.30 8.30 8.30 1.15
Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index 7.30 7.30 7.30 1.10
Swipe or scroll right for more data

Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Composite results reflect the reinvestment of dividends, capital gains and other earnings when appropriate. Net returns are calculated by reducing the gross returns by the highest stated fee in the composite fee schedule. Only transaction costs are deducted from gross of fees returns. To view a GIPS Report for all composites, click here.

Calendar Year Returns (%)

Year Gross of Fees Net of FeesBloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index
2025 8.74 8.30 7.30

Peer Group Quartile Rankings1 As of 31 Dec 2025

Diamond
Hill
Percentile
13th
13th

Statistics

Portfolio Characteristics2 As of 31 Dec 2025

Core Plus Bond Composite Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index
Inception 31 Dec 2024 —
Status Open —
Number of Holdings 454 13,935
Yield To Maturity 5.59% 4.35%
Yield to Worst 5.56% 4.35%
Effective Duration 5.77 5.88
Weighted Average Life (years) 7.12 8.05
Convexity 0.45 0.41
Option-Adjusted Spread 155 29

Since Inception Risk Statistics2,3 As of 31 Dec 2025

Core Plus Bond Composite Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index
Standard Deviation 5.11% 5.35%
Beta 0.91% —
Sharpe Ratio 0.43 -0.03
R-Squared 94.25% —
Information Ratio 1.81 —

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Portfolio

Portfolio Guidelines

The portfolio generally invests at least 80% of its assets in a diversified portfolio of fixed income securities and may invest a significant portion or all of its assets in securitized bond investments. The portfolio may invest up to 35% of its assets in below-investment grade securities at the time of purchase. The portfolio will typically maintain an average portfolio duration within 20% of the duration of the Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index.

Sector Allocation4 (%) As of 31 Dec 2025

Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index

Duration Breakdown (%)As of 31 Dec 2025

Core Plus Bond Composite Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index
Less than one Y 13.0 0.7
1-3 Y 16.4 29.3
3-5 Y 24.1 22.0
5-7 Y 20.0 18.5
7-10 Y 9.2 13.1
10-20 Y 17.2 16.5
20+ Y 0.2 0.0

Credit Quality Rating5 (%) As of 31 Dec 2025

AAA 6.1
AA 57.0
A 12.1
BBB 13.2
BB 6.0
B 3.6
CCC & Below 0.2
Not Rated 1.8

Key Rate Duration (%) As of 31 Dec 2025

Core Plus Bond Composite Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index
1Y 0.14 0.16
2Y 0.16 0.26
3Y 0.34 0.47
5Y 1.14 1.13
10Y 1.92 1.30
20Y 1.72 1.55
30Y 0.34 1.01

1 Source: eVestment Analytics. Ranking within eVestment US Core Plus Fixed Income universe based on monthly returns gross of fees. Ranking data calculated on 21 Jan 2026 (as of 31 Dec 2025) and is subject to change as additional firms within the category submit data. Diamond Hill pays an annual fee to eVestment to access their platform and to use their data, including peer group rankings, in marketing materials. Diamond Hill does not pay for the ranking.

2 Data, where applicable, is shown gross of fees and should be viewed in conjunction with the net of fee returns included in this document.

3 Relative to the Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index.

4 Cash & Other may include cash and money market funds. RMBS: Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities, CMBS: Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities.

5 Security quality ratings are derived from underlying portfolio securities by using the middle rating of Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch. If only two of Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch rates a security the higher of the two is selected. If only one of Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch rates a security the available rating is used. For securities that are not rated by Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, or Fitch a rating from a secondary Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (“NRSRO”) may be used. Ratings by any agency represent an opinion only, not a recommendation to buy or sell. Securities that are not rated by any agencies are reflected as Not Rated “NR.”

Index data source: Bloomberg Index Services Limited. See diamond-hill.com/disclosures for a full copy of the disclaimer.

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