Fund Evaluator:

Cullen Emerging Markets High Div Retail Overview

Cullen Emerging Markets High Div Retail (CEMDX) is an actively managed International Equity Diversified Emerging Mkts fund. Cullen Funds Trust launched the fund in 2012.

The investment seeks current income and long-term capital appreciation. The fund invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus borrowings for investment purposes, in high-dividend paying securities of companies across all capitalizations that are organized in, maintain at least 50% of their assets in, or derive at least 50% of their revenues from, emerging market countries. As a point of comparison, a high dividend paying common stock that the fund would invest in would generally have a dividend yield greater than the average dividend yield of the equity securities in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

About Cullen Emerging Markets High Div Retail (CEMDX)

There are 2 members of the management team with an average tenure of 13.92 years: Rahul Sharma (2012), James Cullen (2012). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 1 primary benchmark: MSCI EM NR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Cullen Emerging Markets High Div Retail has 94 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 39.7% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

Cullen Emerging Markets High Div Retail is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the International Equity fund group. Cullen Emerging Markets High Div Retail has 94.7% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 3.0%. There is 94.7% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.1% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 0.0% (0.0% domestic bond, 0.0% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). Cullen Emerging Markets High Div Retail has 2.2% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $104 million in total assets, which is below the $967 million average for the Diversified Emerging Mkts category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

CEMDX Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The Cullen Emerging Markets High Div Retail expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Diversified Emerging Mkts category. Cullen Emerging Markets High Div Retail has an expense ratio of 1.25%, which is 8% higher than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a D. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. Cullen Emerging Markets High Div Retail has a portfolio turnover rate of 118%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 68% for the Diversified Emerging Mkts category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, Cullen Emerging Markets High Div Retail returned -0.9%, which earned it a grade of A, as the Diversified Emerging Mkts category had an average return of -4.9%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all funds in that category.

Cullen Emerging Markets High Div Retail has a trailing yield of 1.83%, which is above the 1.72% category average. The fund normally distributes its income quarterly and its capital gains annually.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

Cullen Emerging Markets High Div Retail Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 20.0%, 0.9 percentage points better than the category, which translates into a grade of C. The fund has returned 38.2% over the past year (grade of B), 21.5% over the past three years (grade of A) and 13.4% per year over the past five years (grade of A) and 10.4% per year over the past 10 years (grade of A).

For more mutual fund grades, analysis and screening tools to help your investment discovery, join AAII for a $2, full-access trial. Learn more here: https://invest.aaii.com/membership.

Otherwise, for more information about Cullen Emerging Markets High Div Retail, including its riskiness, submit your email to unlock the rest of the article.