The Sextant Mutual Funds are regularly featured in the news media and often contribute press releases. This page features highlights from recent years.

In The News

2011

Oct. 28, 2011 — Morningstar — Sextant Growth SSGFX : "All in all, this fund is a pretty good option for investors who want access to Kaiser's demonstrated stock-picking expertise but don't want the Islamic screens."

Aug. 12, 2011 — Zack's — Top 5 International Mutual Funds: "Sextant International (SSIFX) invests a large share of its assets in several countries, with an emphasis on developed markets. It invests across sectors and uses a value based approach to select its investments."

Jul. 20, 2011 — Investor Place — Sextant International — A Mutual Fund for the Big Boys: "The Sextant International Fund (SSIFX) is a . . . fund that seeks long-term capital growth through a diversified portfolio of international securities. It invests across industries, companies and countries but prefers larger and more established firms."

Jan. 26, 2011 — Jemstep Blog — Jem5: Diversified International Funds: "A somewhat more risk-averse investor might be drawn to the Sextant [International] fund . . . which [offers] quite low levels of volatility as measured by standard deviation."

2010

Dec. 28, 2010 —Louis Rukeyser's Mutual Funds — Up by the Bootstraps: "Nicholas Kaiser, manager of Sextant International, has one of the best track records in the business. But he didn't achieve this success by taking on high levels of risk; Kaiser is a value investor who has no qualms about increasing the fund's cash position when the market is overbought."

Dec. 16, 2010 — U.S. News & World Report — Best Foreign Large-Cap Blend Funds for the Long term: "Sextant International (symbol SSIFX). This fund is far from fully invested in the stock market, with more than 30 percent of its total assets residing in cash. A defensive position helped Sextant International during 2008, but the fund lagged somewhat in 2009 as market rallied."

Oct. 11, 2010 — Morningstar — Sextant Growth SSGFX : "Even so, this fund's 10-year returns rank in the category's top decile with much less volatility than the average large-growth fund. It's not a bad choice for those who want access to Kaiser's stock-picking without the Amana fund's screens"

Jul. 20, 2010 — Morningstar — Finding Investors Who Share Your Long-Term View: "Admittedly, this combination of shareholder traits is quite rare, but it does happen. Four low-turnover funds in particular have enjoyed both strong manager and strong shareholder performance over time: . . . Sextant Growth Fund (SSGFX) . . . ."

Jul. 5, 2010 — Business Week — Analysts Pare Revenue Growth Expectations: "It may be that analysts' optimism about economic growth at the start of a new year tends to fade as the year wears on, which is borne out by patterns in 2009 and so far in 2010, says Peter Nielsen, manager of the Sextant Core Fund (SCORX) at privately held Saturna Capital in Bellingham, Wash."

Mar. 10, 2010 — Zack's — Top 5 Non-US Funds: "Sextant International (SSIFX) invests a large share of its assets in several countries, with an emphasis on developed markets. It invests across sectors and uses a value based approach to select its investments."

Mar. 3, 2010 — NPR — Nightly Business Report: Sextant International Fund "It's small about $100 million which is small in the international fund world. It's been run by the same person for about 14 years. It's outperformed its peers consistently. And I just think it's an interesting kind of undiscovered gem among international funds."

Feb. 24, 2010 — U.S. News & World Report — The Best Mutual Funds for 2010: "Some residual indicators of these funds' defensive stakes still linger, largely in their cash holdings. As recently as the end of last month, for example, Sextant International (SSIFX), the top-ranked foreign large blend fund, had roughly 40 percent of its portfolio stashed away in cash."

Jan. 1, 2010 — Industry Veteran Ron Fielding Joins Saturna Investment Trust Board

A Few Words About Risk

The Growth Fund may invest in smaller companies, which involve higher investment risks in that they often have limited product lines, markets and resources, or their securities may trade less frequently and have greater price fluctuation than those of larger companies.

The International Fund involves risks not typically associated with investing in U.S. securities. These include fluctuations in currency exchange rates, less public information about securities, less governmental market supervision, and lack of uniform financial, social and political standards.

The Core Fund involves the risks of both equity and debt investing, although it seeks to mitigate these risks by maintaining a widely diversified portfolio that includes domestic stocks, foreign stocks, short and long-term bonds, and money market instruments.

The risks inherent in the Short-Term Bond and Bond Income Funds depend primarily on the terms and quality of the obligations in their portfolios, as well as on bond market conditions. When interest rates rise, bond prices fall. When interest rates fall, bond prices go up. Bonds with longer maturities (such as those held by the Bond Income Fund) usually are more sensitive to interest rate changes than bonds with shorter maturities (such as those held by the Short-Term Bond Fund). The Funds entail credit risk, which is the possibility that a bond will not be able to pay interest or principal when due. If the credit quality of a bond is perceived to decline, investors will demand a higher yield, which means a lower price on that bond to compensate for the higher level of risk.