DISCIPLINED GROWTH INVESTORS INC /MN

Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. is an investment management firm based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The company was established in 1997 by founder Fred Martin and began with approximately $700 million in assets under management. The company would grow to $1.7 billion in assets under management by 2009 with 145 clients. Disciplined Growth Investors offers two equity portfolios, its small and mid-cap growth portfolios, and a balanced portfolio for its clients, all of which were launched in 1997. The firm is still headed by its President and CIO Fred Martin and currently operates with 17 employees of which 10 are investment professionals. Disciplined Growth Investors utilizes a value focused approach and focuses on investing in the growth stocks of companies, attempting to exploit stock volatility. Its research focuses on building financial models to assess intrinsic value and create comprehensive understanding of businesses. Disciplined Growth Investors invests most heavily in the information technology sector, which alone makes up over a third of its total asset allocations, and also invests in the consumer discretionary sector, making up another quarter of its allocations, health care, industrials, and transports sectors, among others to a lesser degree, in order of decreasing allocation. The company holds over $4.4 billion in total assets under management spread across 168 accounts, all of which are discretionary accounts. Although Disciplined Growth Investors’s total number of accounts held has been relatively stable in recent years, its total assets under management has been increasing, growing significantly from just under a billion to well over 4 times that amount today. Disciplined Growth Investors mainly caters to individuals and high net worth individuals, each of which make up over a quarter of its client base, and also caters to pension and profit sharing plans, investment advisors, corporations, investment companies, charities, insurance companies, and others, in order of decreasing clientele.