Welcome to the inaugural podcast of Fort Washington Insights. We'll be bringing you regular insights from our investment teams and sharing our thoughts on issues currently impacting markets.
Today's show is hosted by Dan Carter, Senior Fixed Income Portfolio Manager, who has 25 years of investment experience. He is joined by two portfolio managers from the Investment Grade Credit team. Paul Tomich is a Senior Portfolio Manager and Jon Westerman is a Portfolio Manager and Head of Investment Grade Credit Research.
Topics Covered In This Episode:
- View of valuations in the context of the current environment. Is there still value in corporate bonds? (0:51 – 03:08)
- Have credit fundamentals generally tracked the improvements in valuations? (03:11 – 04:02)
- With low rates available to borrowers, have corporations increased leverage or extended maturities of debt? (04:03 – 05:35)
- Is there an increase in M&A or other shareholder focused actions? (05:37 – 05:35)
- Is corporate leverage a concern or do low rates mitigate that risk? (06:36 – 07:55)
- Increasing amount of BBBs and the potential for a wave of defaults into High Yield (07:58 – 09:32)
- Positioning a portfolio in this environment (09:33 – 11:21)
