Mr. Hilgendorf: The first thing I would like to mention is that we are now part of a new registered investment advisor, Kellogg Asset Management. We are still an affiliate of Associated Banc-Corp, but our focus will be on institutional asset management. The Kellogg name dates back to one of the founding families of the organization and was also the name of the investment arm of the trust company going back 40 years. We have the independence of a focused institutional money manager, yet remain connected to the rich money management tradition of the organization.
One exciting element is that unlike many money managers in this environment, we're adding to staff. We've added three analysts to our team that help with both equity and fixed income research.
TWST: Let's move on to your fund management and investment philosophy.
Mr. Hilgendorf: We remain committed to a bottoms-up earnings revision strategy and the way we look at stock prices is that they reflect both an optimistic and a pessimistic view of the company's fundamentals. Incremental news will confirm the positive or the negative case and the price should react to that. We believe these positive revisions are usually not a one-time event and that the stock prices will follow the revisions over time. What we try to do in the research process is identify several key aspects of the growth story and be more accurate with our forecasts than the consensus.
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