David Weinstein joined Dana Investment Advisors in May of 2013 and is currently a Portfolio Manager. He is responsible for security selection and portfolio analysis across Dana’s equity strategies. He received both an MBA and undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame and a degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
in this 4,046 word interview, exclusively in the Wall Street Transcript, Mr. Weinstein explains how his firm does well for investors by offering a highly selective ESG fund.
“ESG investing utilizes environmental, social and governance criteria to evaluate investment opportunities. Related terms include “socially responsible” or simply “responsible investing” as well as “sustainable investing.” Our main equity ESG strategies launched in 2000, so they have quite a long track record.
Some of the areas we analyze are climate change impacts, disclosure policies, history of fines and regulatory actions, and waste- and water-reduction efforts. These clearly fall under the “E,” or environmental factors.
Some social considerations are workforce diversity, labor and human rights policies, and product and workplace safety issues. Governance includes CEO compensation, board independence and composition, and stakeholder alignment. We believe ESG integration can generate alpha and/or reduce risk.”
The Dana Investment Advisors fund managers have created an investor friendly advocate:
“In July of 2018, just two years after actually completing the EMC deal, Dell decided that they wanted to buy back this tracking stock. And the price they offered for DVMT was approximately $0.60 on the dollar. At that time, across our strategies, we held a fairly large position in VMware, and we had a smaller position in the tracking stock DVMT.
We were very concerned about this offer for several reasons. We felt there was an ethical issue. If you come out and you sell to the public a stock and state your intention is that it is worth one-to-one or 100 cents on the dollar in 2016, and then, two years later, you want to buy this stock back for $0.60, that’s an obvious management-credibility issue.
As owners of VMware, we were also concerned that if this deal went through at the price that Dell offered, it would strengthen Dell’s financial position. They already owned 80% of VMware. Dell could possibly take out the remaining 20% of VMware at a similar discount. So we felt this was a worrisome situation…
We wrote a letter to Dell in July and began talking with some other institutions about working together on this issue, using some of the ESG collaboration resources that we have utilized in the past…
We…had a call scheduled with the lead director of VMware on the very day that Dell decided to raise the bid in early November. Dell raised the bid, and we felt the new valuation was reasonable.
As a result, in our social ESG strategy, VMware was the best-performing stock in the second half of 2018. DVMT was the best-performing stock in our growth strategy. We held to our convictions, and this was meaningful to our investment performance.”
Read the entire 4,046 word interview to get the more examples of ESG investing upside, only in the Wall Street Transcript.
Hawaiian Electric Industries (HE) Location Protects It from U.S. Competitor Utilities
April 02, 2013
Imperva Inc’s (IMPV) Targeted Technology Protects Data Centers from Attacks on Web Applications
May 10, 2013
Interview Highlights: David Weinstein of Dana Investment Advisors on Investing Strategies
August 17, 2016
Interview Highlights: Rob Leuty of Dana Investment Advisors on Investing Strategies
October 07, 2016
Trillium Asset Management Lead Portfolio Manager: ESG Orientation Doesn’t Mean Sacrificing Performance
December 05, 2022
