The JUST Report: The Returns are In – Stakeholder Leadership Pays

The “ROI” of being just is critical to our overall strategy. Understanding if and how just leaders perform better financially than their peers supports the investor case for stakeholder capitalism and helps guide corporate executives and boards on where and how they can allocate capital to generate the biggest impact. That’s why JUST’s investment analysis – expertly led by former portfolio manager Mona Patni – is so important. 

Some key takeaways from our Q1 2024 analysis:

• As of March 29, 2024, our flagship index – the JUST U.S. Large Cap Diversified Index (JULCD)  – has outperformed the Russell 1000 (Cap-Weighted) benchmark by 0.346% year-to-date and by 10.7% since inception.
• The JUST 100 (equally weighted index) has outperformed the Russell 1000 (Equally-Weighted) index by 4.47% year-to-date and 43.46% since inception.
• Three of the five stakeholders we track delivered a positive performance in Q1 2024. The Communities stakeholder delivered the strongest performance over this period with a long-short spread of 5.19%, while the Customers stakeholder lagged at -2.73%. 
• Aggregated across all five stakeholders, the Q1 spread between the top and bottom decile performers was 4.9%.
• All five worker sub-categories had a positive top 10% vs. bottom 10% spread: Living Wage at 1.3%, Health & Safety at 1.82%, Benefits & Work-Life Balance at 1.23%, DEI at 1.03% and Workforce Advancement at an impressive 4.99%.
• The sub-category with the greatest spread between top and bottom performers: Local job creation, at 5.06%.

There’s a lot to unpack here, but the headline is clear: just business is better business. 

Be well, 

Martin

Quote of the Week

“While we don’t run the company worrying about the stock price in the short run, in the long run we consider our stock price a measure of our progress over time. This progress is a function of continual investments in our people, systems and products, in good and bad times, to build our capabilities. These important investments will also drive our company’s future prospects and position it to grow and prosper for decades.”

• JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon speaking to his shareholders in the company’s 2023 Annual Report. 

JUST AI

Microsoft continues to expand aggressively into AI, investing 1.5 billion into an AI holding company in the United Arab Emirates. The Motley Fool takes a closer look at this move. 

Must Reads

The Wall Street Journal explores how corporate diversity goals are disappearing from company annual reports thanks to increased pushback on DEI. Despite this, the one CEO who hasn’t been scared off is Jamie Dimon, who continues to defend DEI when so many of his contemporaries have gone silent. Axios explores why. 

CNBC runs down what salary a family of four needs to live comfortably in every state. 

Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga passed a historic vote to join the United Auto Workers on Friday, making the auto factory the first in the South to vote to unionize since the 1940s. The Washington Post has the story. 

Delta Airlines is giving a 5% pay raise to all employees and is increasing starting salaries for several positions in order to improve hiring and retention during the upcoming summer travel season. 

The Washington Post reports that President Biden has officially signed the “TikTok ban” legislation, giving the company 9 months to sell the app or face a national ban. 

Chart of the Week

This chart comes from our Q1 Investment Analysis, and shows a quick-view of the stakeholders in our JUST ETF that showed high outperformance. Click here to explore the full analysis.