Then generally speaking from a channel perspective, you know, our institutional distribution channel was net flow positive in the fourth quarter and we think that that’s an area where we’ll have momentum as well from a distribution perspective.
Kenneth Lee: Great, very helpful there. And just one follow-up, if I may, in terms of the potential M&A discussions you’re having, any color around either bid-ask spread expectations or whether you’ve been seeing a change in seller expectations more recently. Thanks.
David Brown: I think each discussion is very unique to the opportunity. That being said, I think 2024 is going to be a year where we can execute and to execute you have to have buyer and seller expectations be close. And I’d say that what we’re seeing from an environment perspective is, they’ve gotten a lot closer over the last quarter or so.
Kenneth Lee: Great. Very helpful there. Thanks again.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Michael Cyprys from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Michael Cyprys: Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Just wanted to start off on the ETF franchise, nearly $5 billion of assets today. Maybe you could talk about some of the steps you’re taking to accelerate growth and how built out is distribution and product set at this point compared to where you’d like to see that? Thanks.
David Brown: So, we have — our ETF sales force is really part of our existing retail and intermediary sales force. So, our sales folks sell both mutual funds and ETF. We’ve just started to build out and to enhance that an ETF only salesforce. So that’s something that we started in 2023 and will continue to build out in 2024. So we have all of our sales people out in the field really have the ability to talk about ETFs and to sell ETFs. We’ve launched a few new ETFs in 2023. We have plans to launch more in 2024. I would like to have more ETFs than not. I think that a portion of the buyers that maybe bought mutual funds before will look at ETFs. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t a lot of buyers for mutual funds, but clearly ETFs work well with certain types of clients in certain types of situations.
We have had, we’ve been in the ETF business since 2015. So we’re pretty well experienced. We understand it and under the Victory Shares brand, we think we can grow that business. And so, I would expect us to launch more ETFs in 2024 in a number of different asset classes and a number of different solution type, so really with different types of solutions for clients.
Michael Cyprys: Great, thanks. And just a follow-up question on the direct channel. If you could update us on how much in assets and accounts you have? What you saw in 2023 just in terms of flows and new account registrations, and just maybe you could talk about some of the steps you’re taking in 2024 to accelerate growth and maybe just elaborate on the long-term vision you have for the direct channel? Thank you.
David Brown: So we don’t disclose specific metrics for the direct channel as far as accounts or flows. So I won’t report any of those but I’ll give you some color. What we saw in 2023 and then going into 2024 really is building out capabilities. So building out our product set through the launch of the brokerage platform, ensuring that our service is of the highest standard, and also making sure that we work through all of the technology to make it a really good experience for clients when they sign up and our ability to service them. And longer term, what our vision is, is to have our existing client base have a really, really good experience, to have a wide set of products that go in addition to just Victory products, which was the thinking behind the brokerage launch.
And I think, as we think about longer term as well, we think we can grow that business and really look at getting new clients and new assets. We do sign up a good number of new clients on the platform every day. And we have a lot of history talking to our clients and we’re understanding what’s important to them and addressing those issues. So as we continue to work through that, I think longer term, you’ll see us have that channel and it will be an area where we’re doing an excellent job and it should turn into significant or measurable growth.
Michael Cyprys: Great. Thank you.
Operator: Our final question today comes from Matthew Howlett from B. Riley. Please go ahead.
Matthew Howlett: Hey, thanks, everybody. Thanks for taking my question. Just on the subject of capital returns for 2024. I think investors get excited when they see the $243 million, 21% increase last year and with the dividend increase you’re off to a head start in 2024. My question is on buybacks. How much will that depend on what you do on M&A? The stocks could easily hit a 52 week high today. I’d just love to hear what your thought is around buybacks and then with the M&A potentially occurring in 2014.
Michael Policarpo: Yes. Thanks, Matt. Yes, I think we’ve been very clear as we think about our capital policy and really has been unchanged. We want the flexibility to continue to execute our differentiated strategy, which really for us does include an organic growth. And so, we do look at, as you mentioned, we did increase our dividend this quarter about 5%, which we think is a strong reward for our shareholders and something that we still feel is ancillary to the overall picture from a business perspective. Really with respect to the balance between buybacks and M&A, really is facts and circumstances. So we do look at it ongoing. I think as we’ve said, we were active from an M&A perspective and we do think that’s a differentiator for long-term value creation for our shareholders.
