www.stjamesia.com St. James Investment Advisors 1-800-966-9343 Balanced Portfolio Objective The St. James Balanced Portfolio seeks to provide total return through a combination of equities and fixed income. The equity portion of the portfolio places an emphasis on selecting companies with above average dividends and those trading at reasonable discounts from our assessment of intrinsic value. The fixed income portion of the portfolio provides long-term growth of income and a moderate level of current income. Philosophy Absolute Return: We are absolute return investors and each investment must meet our strict fundamental research and macroeconomic criteria, not just offer opportunity relative to other alternatives. Long-term focus: We believe the best way to accomplish our goals is to accept short-term underperformance in exchange for long-term success. We expect to hold our investment positions unless fundamental valuation parameters change. We are not speculators and adhere to a strict value investment discipline. We are willing to hold cash. Why We Believe Dividends Are Important: • Over the long term, the return from dividends has been a significant contributor to the total returns produced by equity securities. According to Standard & Poor’s, dividends comprised an average of 35% of the monthly total return of the S&P 500 from 1926 to 2009. • Stocks with apparent high and sustainable dividend yields may be more resistant to a decline in price than lower yielding stocks because the stock is in effect “yield supported.” • There is an abundance of empirical evidence which suggests that portfolios consisting of high dividend yielding securities may produce attractive total returns over long measurement periods. Focus as bottom-up managers: Most of our energy goes to evaluating investment opportunities and trying to quantify potential downside scenarios. However, we do take some interest in the macro environment, as economic conditions profoundly affect the business models we are evaluating. Primary Portfolio Equity portion will be invested in dividend-paying equities and the fixed-income portion of the portfolio will utilize electronically traded funds or select fixed-income securities. St. James Investment Advisor We are professional portfolio managers Committed to Value Investing. St. James is an independent, fee-only, United States Securities and Exchange Commission registered investment advisory firm, providing customized portfolio management services to individuals and their financial advisors. Partnership Investing We invest our money alongside you as partners in our process. As managers we have significant amounts of our own capital invested in the strategy. Governing Principles We will primarily invest in blue chip companies with above-average dividend yields and an established history of paying dividends. The fixed income portfolio places an emphasis on investment grade quality bonds. We will treat your investment with St. James as if it were our own. We will remain significant investors with you in St. James Investment Advisors portfolios. Our decision-making process takes full advantage of individual insights within a partnership oriented culture. We are patient, long-term investors. We will discourage short-term speculators and market timers. We will communicate with our investment partners as candidly as possible. We think “benchmark risk” is part of investment life. Our firm’s goal is to earn good absolute investment returns over long periods of time without exposing our clients’ capital to undue risk. We do not think about any particular index when we make investment decisions.
All investing involves risk of loss, and the St. James Balanced Portfolio investment strategy could lose money over short or even long periods. The Investment Highlight position described above was randomly selected and was not selected based on performance. Views expressed regarding a particular company, security, industry, or market sector should not be considered an indication of trading intent of any investments managed by St. James Investment Advisors. These views should not be considered investment advice, nor should they be considered a recommendation to buy or sell. Data is based on a representative account selected because it has the least number of restrictions and best represents the implementation of the strategy. Presentations of composite performance are available upon request. Part 2 of form ADV is available upon request or at www.stjamesia.com. www.stjamesia.com St. James Investment Advisors 1-800-966-9343 Balanced Portfolio Quarter Ending September 30, 2025 | Commentary In today's U.S. economic environment, businesses and investors face a complex mix of challenges and opportunities. These are driven by slowing yet resilient growth, persistent inflation, and uncertain policies. Companies are grappling with higher costs and evolving labor dynamics, while investors are dealing with market volatility resulting from policy changes. In recent years, many investor portfolios have increasingly leaned towards growth-style investments, resulting in a lower exposure to value-style opportunities. The strong performance of growth stocks and sectors since mid-2022 has caused the stock market, as represented by the S&P 500 index, to become significantly skewed towards growth. We believe this is an ideal time to revisit the fundamentals of value investing within the current market environment. Investment assets, particularly stocks, have a value often referred to as "intrinsic value." The value of an asset is derived from its "fundamentals." Ultimately, fundamentals determine a company's earning power, which is the source of its intrinsic value. We see the current market as a delicate balancing act between investor optimism—partly fueled by the AI narrative—and underlying economic and valuation risks. We believe Artificial Intelligence will increase the efficiencies of the companies we own. However, great companies do not always make great investments. Valuations eventually matter. As portfolio managers, it is crucial to form our own assessments of a company's business value through careful and rational analysis of the facts. We are very optimistic about the stocks we own, particularly in comparison to the risk we are avoiding by not investing in historically popular common growth style stocks. We will continue to adhere to our criteria for stock selection. Price is what you pay – Value is what you get. During the last quarter the St. James Balanced Portfolio benefitted with exposure to: During the last quarter the St. James Balanced Portfolio exposure to the following was negative: The following are the individual contributors and detractors from the portfolio during the last quarter: As of quarter-end, the St. James Balanced Portfolio had the following compositions: Investment Highlight Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) is a technology conglomerate and holding company that operates through three main segments: Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets. Its core Google Services include the widely used search engine, Android operating system, Chrome browser, Google Maps, YouTube, and advertising platforms. The Google Cloud segment offers enterprise cloud services, including data, analytics, and AI solutions, alongside cloud-based productivity tools like Google Workspace. The "Other Bets" segment explores new ventures in various sectors such as healthcare and autonomous vehicles through companies like Waymo. Alphabet has a market capitalization of $2.91 trillion and realized 2024 revenue of $350.02 billion. • Financials • Health Care • Industrials • Real Estate • Select Communication Services • Select Health Care Contributors: Detractors: The Coca-Cola Company Alphabet Inc. Bank of New York Mellon Corp. Procter & Gamble Co. RTX Corp. Comcast Corp. Equities: 47.25% Fixed-Income: 51.00% Cash Equivalents: 1.75% Total: 100.00%