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    • Overview

    Objective

    The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation.

    Insight driven: Utilizes investor behavior insight to uncover and capitalize undervalued investment opportunities.

    Key features

    • A behavioral finance-based approach: Seeks to acquire stocks that it believes are temporarily mispriced and may appreciate over the long-term
    • Capitalizes on investor biases: Believes investment opportunities are created by irrational investor behavior and the resulting errors tend to be recurring and predictable
    • Disciplined risk management: Utilizes stringent controls to manage risk and minimize unexpected outcomes

    Fund documentation

    • Fact sheet (PDF): Share classes A, IS, and/or R6

    Additional resources

    Visit the site where the prospectus, reports, and other regulatory documents are located.

    Strategy overview

    As part of the portfolio management of the Nationwide Bailard Cognitive Value Fund, behavioral finance techniques are employed in an attempt to capitalize on investors’ behavioral biases and cognitive errors that can result in securities being mispriced. (Behavioral finance is the study of why people do not always behave in an economically rational manner.) Economic irrationality typically arises from investors maximizing personal benefit (not wealth), emotional investing, heuristic biases (e.g., “trial and error” or “rule of thumb” biases) and cognitive errors. The Fund attempts to exploit investors’ biases and errors that it believes to be recurring and predictable, and to minimize its own susceptibility to these same biases and errors.

    Fund management

    Portfolio management

    Bailard, Inc. logo

    Bailard, Inc.

    Founded by three Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni in 1969, Bailard, Inc., has a deep and extensive record of serving the institutional marketplace, beginning in the 1990s with a strategic decision to expand their asset management services to pension funds, endowments and foundations. Today, Bailard offers single asset class strategies on a stand-alone basis.

    Nearly all of the research team hold advanced designations, including Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), PhD, JD, actuary, master's and MBA. They seek to provide solid, consistent returns with limited volatility and conduct extensive testing on their products to help ensure that they perform as designed.

    In addition to their flagship international and real estate strategies, Bailard offers a variety of additional single asset class investment approaches to meet specific allocation mandates, including large-growth/technology and science, emerging life sciences and small-value equity.

    Founded: 1969

    Location: Foster City, CA

    Assets Under Management (AUM): $8.4 Billion (as of 6/30/2026)

    Management team

    Thomas J. Mudge photo

    Thomas J. Mudge, III, CFA

    Portfolio Manager

    Investing since: 1987
    Fund tenure since: 2006
    Education: BA, Northern Michigan University
    Blaine Townsend photo

    Blaine Townsend, CIMC®, CIMA®

    Portfolio Manager

    Investing since: 1991
    Fund tenure since: 2020
    Education: BA, University of California, Berkeley
    Osman Akgun photo

    Osman Akgun, PhD, CFA

    Portfolio Manager

    Investing since: 2011
    Fund tenure since: 2021
    Education: PhD, University of California, Berkeley; Masters, University of California, Berkeley; BS, Bogazici University
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    Performance

    Average annual returns
    (as of )

    Important disclosure

    The results shown represent past performance; past performance does not guarantee future results. Current performance may be lower or higher than the past performance shown. Share price, principal value, and return will vary, and you may have a gain or a loss when you sell your shares. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted.

    Performance returns assume the reinvestment of all distributions. Returns for periods less than one year are not annualized. Total returns reflect a contractual expense limitation for direct annual Fund expenses for all classes for certain periods since inception, without which returns would have been lower. Pre-inception historical performance for newer share classes is based on the corresponding share class performance of a Fund's predecessor fund. If no predecessor Fund applies, historical performance is based on that of the longest existing share class, adjusted for sales charges if applicable.

    Calendar year returns
    (as of )

    Growth of 10K
    (as of )

    Fees, expenses and minimums

    Important disclosure

    The expense ratios are as of the most recent prospectus. The difference between gross and net operating expenses reflects contractual fee waivers in place through March 2, 2027.

    The Nationwide Mutual Funds and NFA entered into a written contract limiting annual fund operating expenses to 0.73% until at least March 2, 2027. Under the agreement, the expense cap applies to all share classes (excluding 12b-1 fees). Please see the Fund's prospectus for more details.

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    Portfolio

    Asset allocation
    (as of )

    Percentage of net assets.

    Top 10 holdings
    NWHDX (as of )

    Holding nameWeight (%)
    No holdings data available.

    Holdings are provided for informational purposes and should not be deemed as a recommendation to buy or sell the securities.

    Sector allocations
    (as of )

    Percentage of net equity assets. Percentages may not total 100.00 due to rounding.

    Portfolio characteristics
    (as of )

    * Portfolio Characteristics are calculated based on the Fund’s Morningstar Category Index using a rolling 3-year time period. If Inception Date of the share class is less than 3 years ago, Characteristic is not available.

    Style details
    (as of )

    Important disclosure

    The Morningstar Style Box is a nine-square grid that provides a graphical representation of the "investment style" of mutual funds as of the date noted above. For stocks and stock funds, it classifies securities according to market capitalization (the vertical axis) and growth and value factors (the horizontal axis). A darkened square in the style box indicates the weighted average style of the portfolio.

    Rankings and ratings
    (as of )

    Fund risks

    The Fund is subject to the risks of investing in equity securities (including small and micro-cap companies). Smaller companies are usually less stable in price and less liquid than larger, more established companies. Smaller companies are more vulnerable than larger companies to adverse business and economic developments and may have more limited resources. Therefore, they generally involve greater risk. Value funds may underperform other funds that use different investing styles. The Fund may invest in foreign securities (which are volatile, harder to price and less liquid than U.S. securities). The Fund is also subject to the risks of using Behavioral Finance techniques for stock selection. Please refer to the most recent prospectus for a more detailed explanation of the Fund's principal risks.

    Distributions

    Distribution information

    Access important year-end information shareholders will need to prepare taxes.

    [1] Russell 3000® Index: An unmanaged index that measures the performance of the 3,000 largest U.S. companies in the investable U.S. equity universe. Russell Investment Group is the source and owner of the trademarks, service marks and copyrights related to the Russell Indexes. The Fund is not sponsored, endorsed, or promoted by Russell, and Russell bears no liability with respect to any such funds or securities or any index on which such funds or securities are based. Russell® is a trademark of Russell Investment Group.

    [1] Russell 2000® Value Index: An unmanaged index that measures the performance of the small-capitalization value segment of the U.S. equity universe; includes those Russell 2000® Index companies with lower price-to-book ratios and lower forecasted growth values. Russell Investment Group is the source and owner of the trademarks, service marks and copyrights related to the Russell Indexes. The Fund is not sponsored, endorsed, or promoted by Russell, and Russell bears no liability with respect to any such funds or securities or any index on which such funds or securities are based. Russell® is a trademark of Russell Investment Group.

    *Effective 2/28/26, the Nationwide Bailard Cognitive Value Fund was renamed to Nationwide Bailard Small Cap Value Fund.

    Need more information?
    We’re here to help you meet your clients’ needs. 
    Mutual fund service: 1-800-848-0920
    Retail mutual fund sales: 1-877-245-0761
    Connect with a Nationwide Funds wholesaler or key accounts representative

    Read this important information

    Performance represents average annual total returns, assumes the reinvestment of all distributions and reflects applicable sales charges. Total returns reflect a waiver of part of each Fund's fees for certain periods since inception, without which returns would have been lower. Average annual total returns illustrate the annual compounded returns that would have produced the cumulative total return if each Fund's performance had remained constant throughout the period indicated. Returns for periods less than one year are not annualized.

    Additional disclosures

    Returns prior to the first offering of a specific share class of a Fund are based on the previous performance of other share classes of that Fund as noted below. This performance is substantially similar to what the specific share class would have produced because all share classes of a Fund invest in the same portfolio of securities. Performance assumes the reinvestment of all dividends and distributions. Performance has not been adjusted to reflect differences in applicable sales charges for individual classes, which if reflected may have resulted in higher or lower performance for the specific share class. Performance has been adjusted to reflect different expense levels for individual classes.

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    Morningstar Ratings disclosure

    Morningstar Ratings reflect risk-adjusted performance. The Morningstar RatingTM is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with the Fund's 3-, 5- and 10-year (if applicable) periods.

    Morningstar Ratings metrics: Morningstar Ratings are based solely on a proprietary mathematical formula based on measures of risk and performance that it recalculates each month. The ratings formula measures the amount of variation in a fund's monthly performance (excluding the effects of sales charges and loads) emphasizing downward variations and rewarding consistency. Ratings are subject to change every month. The top 10% of funds in the category receive 5 stars; the next 22.5%, 4 stars; the next 35%, 3 stars; the next 22.5%, 2 stars; and the bottom 10%, 1 star.

    Ratings are based on specific class performance of each fund. Current fund performance may be higher or lower, which may change a fund's star rating. Despite high ratings, funds may have experienced negative performance during the period. Performance may reflect a waiver of part of a fund's fees for certain periods since inception, without which returns would have been lower. The Morningstar Rating does not include any adjustment for sales loads.

    © 2026 Morningstar. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information.