Investment Management Services — Smart Investing Starts Here

Thompson Investment Management, Inc. investment professionals manage portfolios of stocks, bonds and other securities for high net worth individuals, trusts, corporations, non-profits, endowments, profit-sharing plans, and foundations. In this capacity, clients give us the discretion to buy and sell securities for their investment accounts based on their specific needs, goals and tax sensitivity. We are an independent advisor, so we can work with your existing broker, custodian or trust company; or we can assist you in choosing a custodian. We employ sophisticated accounting and trading systems that allow us to interface with over 40 brokerage firms and provide comprehensive detailed reporting to meet the diverse needs of our clients. Thompson Investment Management, Inc. also manages three proprietary mutual funds.

Stock Security Selection Process

We focus on total return, using an investment strategy that concentrates on high quality companies from the large, mid and small-cap sectors of the market. We like to purchase a stock with a long-term earnings growth potential that is trading at a low valuation due to a short-term problem or misperception.

Securities are purchased after a thorough analysis of the company’s fundamental data (quantitative and qualitative). Our investment team looks to see that the business is stable and growing, with consistent free cash flow and a balance sheet with a modest debt level. We project cash flows and a normalized earnings stream to determine a reasonable target price. The rate of return from each of our current holdings and prospective purchases is ranked and compared for attractiveness. This analysis determines which securities are added to our watch list to be monitored for price and/or immediate purchase depending on current composition of the portfolio and the security’s effect on the risk and diversification dynamics of the portfolio.

In the end, we simply seek to own the best companies in the best performing market sectors, and not overpay for them.

Bond Security Selection Process

We employ a relatively simple fixed income strategy. We adjust the duration of bond portfolios based on expected changes in interest rates, and favor corporate bonds over government bonds when interest rate spreads are wide. We tend to only buy investment grade bonds of companies that we can analyze, and generally do not invest in complicated debt instruments and derivatives.

For client portfolios, bonds are used to reduce the risk of loss of principal that arises in higher risk asset classes, such as equities. If a higher risk level is desired or deemed appropriate for a client in an attempt to achieve a higher return, our preference is to allocate a larger percentage of their portfolio to the higher-returning asset classes, such as equities – not to stretch for yield by buying low quality bonds.