Sept. 24th, 2019 08:00 ET | Source: Integrity Viking Funds
Minot, N.D. September 24th, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – Integrity Viking Funds, a mutual fund management company headquartered in Minot, North Dakota, announced today that the Integrity Growth and Income Fund (IGIVX) has received a 5-star Overall Morningstar Rating out of 1209 Large Blend Funds, based on risk-adjusted returns for the three year period ended August 31, 2019.
Trey Welstad, Portfolio Manager, commented, “Since the inception of the Class I shares in 2016, the Integrity Growth & Income Fund has outperformed most peers in its Morningstar Large Blend Category. We are confident that our long-term investment approach matched with our focus on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors has allowed the Fund to excel. We believe our strategy of managing for unquantifiable risks via ESG integration has been proven up by the Fund’s 5-star Morningstar Rating, and shows that ESG investing can lead to outsized returns.” In addition to the Fund’s 5-star rating, the Fund also boasts a 5 Globe Morningstar Sustainability Rating and has a top 1 percentile rank in the Large Blend Category in that respect.
Integrity Growth and Income Fund is managed using a blended growth and income investment strategy. The Fund seeks to invest primarily in domestic common stocks, balancing its investments between growth and dividend-paying stocks, depending on where value is in the stock market. The Investment Adviser tries to emphasize companies that it believes both offer attractive investment opportunities and demonstrate a positive awareness of their impact on the society in which they operate. The Fund seeks to invest in companies that the Investment Adviser believes exhibit positive accomplishments with respect to one or more of the ethical factors.
Ethical factors considered may include:
In addition, the Investment Adviser takes environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into account, and does not intend to invest in companies that it believes derive revenue from gambling, firearms, pornography, or from the production of alcohol or tobacco.
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Integrity Viking Funds, founded in 1987, is a boutique asset manager with a focus on income producing strategies. Integrity Viking Funds manages assets for individual investors, registered investment advisors and broker/dealers. The Fund is available at more than 500 financial intermediaries in the U.S.
Integrity Viking Funds are distributed by Integrity Funds Distributors, LLC.
The Fund is sold by prospectus only. For more complete information an investor should consider the investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses of the investment company carefully before investing. The prospectus contains this and other information about the investment company. You may obtain a prospectus at no cost from your financial adviser or from our website integrityvikingfunds.com. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Dividends are not guaranteed.
Returns for Integrity Growth & Income Fund for the period ended June 30, 2019 are: Class I Shares YTD 18.58%, 1-year 16.94%, SI 13.07%. Due to Class I Shares inception date of 8/1/2016, 3-year, 5-year and 10-year returns are not available. Performance data does not reflect the deduction of sales load, if reflected, the sales load would reduce the performance quoted. Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waivers and Expense Reimbursements are 1.00% for Class I Shares. Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses Gross of Fee Waivers and Expense Reimbursements are 1.68% for Class I Shares.
Morningstar Rating™ is for the period ended 8/31/19 in the Large Blend category. The Fund’s 5-star overall Morningstar Rating™ measures risk-adjusted returns and is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its 3-, 5- and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar ratings metric. The Fund (IGIVX) received 5 stars for the 3-year period. The 5- and 10-year periods are not available due to inception date of 8/1/2016. Number of funds in category are 1209 respectively. Rankings for other share classes may vary.
The Morningstar 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 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 three-, five-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% three-year rating for 36-59 months of total returns, 60% five-year rating/40% three-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% five-year rating/20% three-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 three-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods. Morningstar ratings do not reflect the inclusion of sales charges. If sales charges were reflected, ratings could be lower.
Morningstar™ Sustainability Rating as of 7/31/2019 in the Large Blend Category, 1205 funds in category. Sustainalytics provides company-level analysis used in the calculation of Morningstar’s Sustainability Score. The Morningstar™ Sustainability Rating is a measure of how well the holdings in a portfolio are managing their environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, risks and opportunities relative to their Morningstar Category peers. The rating is a holdings-based calculation using company-level ESG analytics from Sustainalytics, a leading provider of ESG research. It is calculated for managed products and indexes globally using Morningstar’s portfolio holdings database. The Morningstar Sustainability Rating is derived from the Morningstar® Portfolio Sustainability Score™, which is calculated based on company-level ESG scores and company involvement in ESG-related controversies. Sustainalytics provides ESG scores on more than 4,500 companies globally, which are evaluated within global industry peer groups. In addition, Sustainalytics tracks and categorizes ESG-related controversial incidents on more than 10,000 companies globally. More information regarding Sustainability calculations can be found at www.morningstar.com.
Ⓒ 2019 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved. Part of the mutual fund data contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete, or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information.
Because the Integrity Growth & Income Fund can only distribute what it earns, the Fund’s distributions to shareholders could decline when dividend income from stocks in the Fund’s portfolio declines. The Fund’s emphasis on dividend-paying stocks involves the risk that such stocks may fall out of favor with investors and underperform the market. Also, a company may reduce or eliminate its dividend, which could affect the Fund’s ability to generate income.
