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Hennessy Cornerstone Mid Cap 30 Fund
Hennessy Cornerstone Mid Cap 30 Fund
Investment Objective
The Hennessy Cornerstone Mid Cap 30 Fund seeks long-term growth of capital.
Fund Fees and Expenses
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.
SHAREHOLDER FEES (fees paid directly from your investment)
Shareholder Fees - Hennessy Cornerstone Mid Cap 30 Fund - USD ($)
Investor Class
Institutional Class
SHAREHOLDER FEES (fees paid directly from your investment) 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 - Hennessy Cornerstone Mid Cap 30 Fund
Investor Class
Institutional Class
Management Fees 0.74% 0.74%
Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees 0.15% none
Other Expenses 0.46% 0.23%
Shareholder Servicing 0.10% none
Remaining Other Expenses 0.36% 0.23%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 1.35% 0.97%
EXAMPLE
This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in shares of this Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds.

The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that you reinvest all dividends and distributions, that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same.
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on the assumptions, your costs would be:
Expense Example - Hennessy Cornerstone Mid Cap 30 Fund - USD ($)
One Year
Three Years
Five Years
Ten Years
Investor Class 137 428 739 1,624
Institutional Class 99 309 536 1,190
Portfolio Turnover
The Fund pays transaction 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 had a portfolio turnover rate of 108% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategy
The Fund normally invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes, in mid-cap, growth-oriented stocks by utilizing a highly disciplined, quantitative formula known as the Cornerstone Mid Cap 30 Formula® (the “Formula”). From a universe of stocks of mid-cap companies (defined as companies that have a market cap of between $1 billion and $10 billion), excluding American Depositary Receipts, the Formula selects the 30 common stocks with the highest one-year price appreciation as of the date of purchase that also meet the following criteria:

 
1)
Price-to-sales ratio below 1.5 
 
   
This value criterion helps to uncover relative bargains. The Formula uses sales as its guide because sales figures are more difficult for companies to manipulate than earnings and frequently provide a clearer picture of a company’s potential value.
 
 
2)
Annual earnings that are higher than the previous year
 
   
While we have found that sales may be the best indicator of a company’s value, the Formula considers improved earnings to be a key indicator of a company’s financial strength.
 
 
3)
Positive stock price appreciation, or relative strength, over the past three and six-month periods
 
   
Relative strength is widely used by investors in attempting to predict which stocks will outperform the market.

The Fund purchases 30 stocks as dictated by the Formula, weighted equally by dollar amount, with 3.33% of the portfolio’s assets invested in each. Using the Formula, the universe of stocks is re-screened and the portfolio is rebalanced annually, generally in the fall. Stocks meeting the Formula’s criteria not currently in the portfolio are purchased, and stocks that no longer meet the criteria are sold. Holdings of all stocks in the Fund that continue to meet the criteria are appropriately increased or decreased to result in an equal 3.33% weighting.
Principal Risks
As with any security, there are market and investment risks associated with your investment in the Fund. The value of your investment will fluctuate over time and it is possible to lose money. The principal risks of investing in the Fund include the following:

Market and Equity Investments Risk: The market value of a security may move up or down, and these fluctuations may cause a security to be worth more or less than the price originally paid for it. Market risk may affect a single company, an industry, a sector of the economy or the market as a whole. The value of equity securities will fluctuate due to many factors, including the past and predicted earnings of the issuer, the quality of the issuer’s management, general market conditions, forecasts for the issuer’s industry and the value of the issuer’s assets.

Formula Investing Risk: The Fund will adhere to the Formula during the course of the year, subject to applicable Securities and Exchange Commission requirements and federal tax requirements relating to mutual funds, despite any adverse developments that may arise. This could result in substantial losses to the Fund, if for example, the stocks selected for the Fund for a given year are experiencing financial difficulty, or are out of favor in the market because of weak performance, a poor earnings forecast, negative publicity or general market cycles. The Fund’s portfolio is rebalanced annually in accordance with the Formula, which may result in the sale of securities that have been performing well in the near term and the purchase of securities that have been performing less well in the near term.

Small- and Medium-Sized Companies Risk: The Fund invests in small- and medium-sized companies, which may have more limited liquidity and greater price volatility than larger, more established companies.  Small companies may have limited product lines, markets or financial resources and their management may be dependent on a limited number of key individuals.

Growth Style Risk:  A growth style of investing may subject the Fund to above-average fluctuations as a result of seeking higher than average capital growth.  Historically, growth stocks have performed best during later stages of economic expansion and value stocks have performed best during early periods of economic recovery.  Growth stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and may be out of favor with investors for periods of time.

Value Investing Risk: A value-oriented investment approach involves the risk that value stocks may remain undervalued, or may not appreciate in value as anticipated.  Value stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and may be out of favor with investors for periods of time.

High Portfolio Turnover Risk:  High portfolio turnover will produce higher transaction costs (such as brokerage commissions or markups or markdowns) that the Fund must pay, and will increase realized gains (or losses) to investors, which may lower the Fund’s after-tax performance.
Performance Information
The following performance information provides some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing its performance from year to year and how the Fund’s average annual returns for 1, 5, and 10 years compare with those of an index that reflects a broad measure of market performance, the S&P 500 Index, as well as an additional index that reflects the types of securities in which the Fund invests, the Russell Midcap® Index. For additional information on these indices, please see “Descriptions of Indices” on page 60 of this Prospectus. The Fund is the successor to the Hennessy Cornerstone Mid Cap 30 Fund, a series of Hennessy Mutual Funds, Inc. (the “Predecessor Mid Cap 30 Fund”). The performance information provided for the periods on or prior to February 28, 2014, is historical information for the Predecessor Mid Cap 30 Fund, which was managed by the same investment adviser and had the same investment objective and investment strategy as the Fund. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of future performance. Performance may be higher or lower in the future. Updated performance information is available on the Hennessy Funds’ website (hennessyfunds.com).
HENNESSY CORNERSTONE MID CAP 30 FUND CALENDAR YEAR TOTAL RETURNS OF INVESTOR SHARES
Bar Chart
For the period shown in the bar chart, the Fund’s highest quarterly return was 15.10% for the quarter ended March 31, 2013, and the lowest quarterly return was -22.59% for the quarter ended September 30, 2008.
AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS (for the periods ended December 31, 2016)
Performance of the Fund’s Institutional Class shares will differ from that of the Fund’s Investor Class shares as the share classes have different expenses and inception dates.
Average Annual Returns - Hennessy Cornerstone Mid Cap 30 Fund
Label
Average Annual Returns, 1 Year
Average Annual Returns, 5 Years
Average Annual Returns, 10 Years
Investor Class Hennessy Cornerstone Mid Cap 30 Fund - Investor Return before taxes 5.82% 12.76% 7.94%
Institutional Class Hennessy Cornerstone Mid Cap 30 Fund - Institutional Return before taxes 6.20% 13.11% 8.27%
After Taxes on Distributions | Investor Class Hennessy Cornerstone Mid Cap 30 Fund - Investor Return after taxes on distributions 5.67% 11.94% 7.30%
After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | Investor Class Hennessy Cornerstone Mid Cap 30 Fund - Investor Return after taxes on distributions and sale of Fund shares 3.43% 10.15% 6.41%
Russell MidCap® Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) Russel Midcap® Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) 13.80% 14.72% 7.86%
S&P 500 Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) S&P 500 Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) 11.96% 14.66% 6.95%
We use the Russell Midcap® Index as an additional index because it compares the Fund’s performance with the returns of an index reflecting the performance of investments similar to those of the Fund.

The after-tax returns are calculated using the historical highest 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, and the after-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their Fund shares through tax deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. After-tax returns are shown for Investor Class shares only and after-tax returns for Institutional Class shares will vary.

The inception date of the Fund’s Institutional Class is March 3, 2008.  Performance shown prior to the inception of Institutional Class shares reflects the performance of the Fund’s Investor Class shares and includes expenses that are not applicable to and are higher than those of Institutional Class shares.