2003 was a banner year for IMS Capital Management of Portland, Oregon. Its Capital Value Fund returned 56.07% for the year, a headline-grabbing gain that yielded a profile in Forbes magazine and contributed to a four-fold increase in assets under management to $59 million. Morningstar bestowed a five-star overall rating on the fund as of December 31, 2003, placing it in the top 10% of Morningstar-rated funds.

IMS president, founder, and chief portfolio manager Carl Marker said that the Capital Value Fund’s strong performance was due to broad based increases rather than one or two extreme out-performers. Eight of the stocks were up more than 100% and twenty were up more than 50%.

IMS Capital Management is the investment advisor for two other funds. The $11 million IMS Strategic Allocation Fund posted a gain of 25.32% in 2003, and the $41 million IMS Strategic Income Fund, the most conservative of the three funds, returned 13.05% and paid out 12 monthly dividends.

"2003 was the highest return and largest increase of assets in our firm's 15-year history," Marker said, “however, we actually beat the S&P 500 index by an even wider margin in 2001. This marks the fourth year in a row that we have trounced the market.”

IMS Capital was founded in 1988, but has never marketed itself aggressively, choosing instead to focus on performance. Strong performance has led to increasing assets, particularly in 2003, when their mutual fund assets more than quintupled, growing to $120 million from $22 million. During the year, total firm assets also grew from $110 million to $420 million.

IMS has increased its staff by 25% in response to the gains in assets under management. They are also adding the Capital Value Fund to the platform at Schwab and expect that process to be completed within the next two to three weeks.  

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