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Value Fund
Value Fund
Investment Objective

The investment objective of the Fund is capital appreciation.

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

The tables below describe the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the tables and examples below.

SHAREHOLDER FEES (fees paid directly from your investment)
Shareholder Fees - Value Fund - USD ($)
Value Fund - Institutional Class
Value Fund - Investor Class
Maximum sales charge (load) on purchase none none
Maximum deferred sales charge (load) none none
Redemption fee none none
ANNUAL FUND OPERATING EXPENSES (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Annual Fund Operating Expenses - Value Fund
Value Fund - Institutional Class
Value Fund - Investor Class
Management fees 0.75% 0.75%
Distribution (12b-1) fees none none
Other expenses [1] 0.13% 0.29%
Total annual fund operating expenses 0.88% 1.04%
Fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement [2] none none
Total annual fund operating expenses after fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement 0.88% 1.04%
[1] Restated to reflect current expenses. Effective July 31, 2021, the Fund’s administrative services fees were revised.
[2] The investment adviser has agreed in writing to waive its fees and reimburse certain expenses (excluding taxes, interest, brokerage costs, acquired fund fees and expenses and extraordinary expenses) to limit the total annual fund operating expenses for Institutional Class shares and Investor Class shares to 0.89% and 1.09%, respectively, of each Class’s average daily net assets through July 31, 2022. This agreement may only be terminated by the Board of Trustees of the Fund.
Example

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the periods indicated and then redeem in full at the end of each of the periods indicated. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same each year. The example reflects the contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement arrangement, if applicable, for the current duration of the arrangement only.

Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
Expense Example - Value Fund - USD ($)
1 YEAR
3 YEARS
5 YEARS
10 YEARS
Value Fund - Institutional Class 90 281 488 1,084
Value Fund - Investor Class 106 331 574 1,271
Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transactions costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual Fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 14% of the average value of the portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

The Fund’s investment strategy (which we call “Quality at a Discount”) is to buy above-average to highest-quality businesses, at prices that we believe are less than what the companies are worth. Under normal circumstances, the Fund will invest the majority of its assets in common stock of larger companies. The Fund considers larger companies to be issuers with market capitalizations equal to or greater than the median company in the Russell 1000 Index, which was $15.207 billion as of June 30, 2021. The Fund may invest in securities issued by non-U.S. companies, which may be denominated in U.S. dollars or foreign currencies. As part of the Fund’s strategy, the Fund may concentrate its investments in securities of relatively few issuers.


We assess a company’s quality based on its competitive position, return on invested capital, ability to redeploy capital, cash flow consistency, financial leverage and management team. We compare the company’s stock price to our estimate of business value, i.e., all the cash that the company will generate for its owners in the future. For each company, we look at a range of business value estimates. We then seek to buy stocks of companies that meet our quality criteria when they are priced are at a discount to our estimates of business value.


We invest with a multiple-year time horizon. We believe that purchasing stocks at prices less than our business value estimates provides opportunities for stock price appreciation, both as business values grow and as the market recognizes companies’ values. Typically, we consider selling stocks as they approach or exceed our business value estimates. We may also sell stocks for other reasons, including for the purchase of stocks that we believe offer better investment opportunities.


We do not try to “time” the market. However, if there is cash available for investment and there are not securities that meet the Fund’s investment criteria, the Fund may invest without limitation in high-quality cash and cash equivalents such as U.S. government securities or government money market fund shares. If the Fund takes such a defensive position, it may be temporarily unable to achieve its investment objective.

Principal Investment Risks

You should be aware that an investment in the Fund involves certain risks, including, among others, the following:


·Market Risk As with any mutual fund, investment return and principal value will fluctuate, depending on general market conditions and other factors. Market risk includes political, regulatory, economic, social and health risks (including the risks presented by the spread of infectious diseases) which can lead to increased market volatility and negative impacts on local and global financial markets, and the duration and severity of the impact of these risks on markets cannot be reasonably estimated. You may lose money if you invest in the Fund.

·Active Management Risk The investment adviser’s judgment about the attractiveness, value or potential appreciation of the Fund’s investments may prove to be incorrect. The Fund could underperform other funds with similar objectives or investment strategies, if the Fund’s overall investment selections or strategies fail to produce the intended results.

·Large Company Risk Securities of large companies tend to have less overall volatility compared to those of mid-size and small companies; however, large companies may not be able to attain the high growth rates of successful mid-size or small companies. In addition, large companies may be less capable of responding to competitive challenges and disruptive changes.

·Concentration Risk The risk that the Fund’s performance may be hurt disproportionately by the poor performance of relatively few stocks. The Fund tends to invest a high percentage of assets in its largest holdings.

·Non-U.S. Securities Risk The Fund may invest in securities issued by non-U.S. issuers, which securities may be denominated in U.S. dollars or foreign currencies. Investments in non-U.S. securities may involve additional risks including exchange rate fluctuation, political or economic instability, the imposition of exchange controls, expropriation, limited disclosure and illiquid markets.

·Failure to Meet Investment Objective There can be no assurance that the Fund will meet its investment objective.

Your investment in the Fund is not a bank deposit and is not insured nor guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) or any other governmental agency.

Performance

The following chart and table provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the Fund’s performance from year to year over the period indicated and by showing how the Fund’s average annual total returns for the periods indicated, both before and after taxes, compared to those of relevant broad-based securities market indices. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, the Fund’s primary comparative index, is generally representative of the market for the stocks of large-size U.S. companies. The Russell 1000 Index measures the performance of the large-cap segment of the U.S. equity market. All Fund performance numbers are calculated after deducting fees and expenses, and all numbers assume reinvestment of dividends. Total returns shown include fee waivers and expense reimbursements, if any; total returns would have been lower had there been no waivers and/or reimbursements. The Fund’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future both before and after taxes. Updated performance information is available at weitzinvestments.com or by calling us toll-free at 800-304-9745.

Calendar Year Total Returns – Investor Class
Bar Chart

The year-to-date return for the Fund’s Investor Class for the six months ended June 30, 2021 was 17.24%.


BEST AND WORST PERFORMING QUARTERS

(during the period shown above)

  Quarter/Year Total Return
Best quarter 2nd quarter 2020 19.11%
Worst quarter 1st quarter 2020 -18.98%
AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS (for periods ended December 31, 2020)
Average Annual Returns - Value Fund
Average Annual Returns, 1 Year
Average Annual Returns, 5 Years
Average Annual Returns, 10 Years
Value Fund - Investor Class 18.43% 12.43% 11.52%
Value Fund - Institutional Class [1] 18.68% 12.69% 11.67%
After Taxes on Distributions | Value Fund - Investor Class 15.88% 10.79% 10.18%
After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | Value Fund - Investor Class 12.51% 9.61% 9.24%
Standard & Poor’s 500 Index 18.40% 15.22% 13.88%
Russell 1000 Index 20.96% 15.60% 14.01%
[1] Institutional Class shares first became available for sale on July 31, 2014. For performance prior to that date, this table includes the actual performance of the Fund’s Investor Class (and uses the actual expenses of the Fund’s Investor Class, for such period of time), without any adjustments. For any such period of time, the performance of the Fund’s Institutional Class would have been substantially similar to, and higher than, the performance of the Fund’s Investor Class, because the shares of both classes are invested in the same portfolio of securities, but Institutional Class shares would have had lower expenses.

After-tax returns are calculated using the highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor’s tax situation and may differ from those shown. In some instances, the return after taxes may be greater than the return before taxes because you are assumed to be able to use the capital loss on the sale of Fund shares to offset other taxable gains. After-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their Fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as a 401(k) account or individual retirement account (IRA).