Calvert News & Commentary

Calvert Ultra-Short Income Fund Reaches Three-Year Mark with Strong Performance, Beating its Benchmark for One-Year, Three-Year, and Since-Inception (10/31/06) Time Periods

Morningstar rates the Fund five stars for three-year and overall categories; Lipper ranks Fund #1 among 57 funds in its peer group for the since-inception time period

11/19/2009

November 19, 2009///Bethesda, MD/// The Calvert Ultra-Short Income Fund (Ticker: CULAX) celebrated three-years of exceptional performance, outperforming its benchmark, the Barclays Capital Short Treasury 9-12 Month Index, for the one-year, three-year, and since-inception time periods; and also ranked #1 among 57 funds, in its peer group, the Lipper Ultra-Short Obligations Funds category, as of 10/31/09 since the Fund’s inception on October 31, 2006.  

In addition, the Fund received five stars from Morningstar (the highest rating given by Morningstar) for the three-year and overall categories in the Ultra-short Bond category among 114 funds (see information about Morningstar ratings below).  The Fund is managed by an investment team led by Gregory Habeeb, Senior Vice President and Lead Portfolio Manager of Calvert’s Taxable Fixed-Income Funds.  With over 27 years of investment industry experience, Mr. Habeeb has managed the Fund since its inception and is responsible for the implementation and overall strategy of more than $7 billion in taxable fixed income assets at Calvert.

“In the current market, many investors are seeking to protect their assets from market volatility, while still seeking a return that is higher than the near-zero yields of U.S. Treasury bills,” said Greg Habeeb, Senior Vice President and Head of Taxable Fixed Income at Calvert Asset Management Company, Inc.  “Our Fund gives these investors a way to enhance their returns, while still maintaining a conservative investment posture.”

Greg Habeeb and his team continually compare the attractiveness of portfolio holdings with bonds available in all sectors of the marketplace and adjust when better relative values are found. This approach is used for the longer-term core holdings, as well as actively traded non-core positions, and he and his team pursue an active management process designed to deliver competitive returns even during difficult markets with a relative-value approach that features four elements:

• Duration management
• A focus on floating rate corporate securities
• Relative value analysis
• Rigorous credit quality analysis

Gross expense ratio: 2.09%. Net expense ratio: 0.89%. Performance data quoted already reflects deduction of fund operating expenses. Net expense ratio reflects contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement through January 31, 2010.

Performance data quoted represents past performance, which is no guarantee of future results. Investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor’s shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be higher or lower than the performance data quoted. Indices reflect no deductions for fees or expenses. An investor cannot invest directly in an index.

Click here to obtain performance data and holding information current to the most recent month-end.

About Morningstar Ratings:

Performance data quoted represents past performance, which does not guarantee future results. For each fund with at least a three-year history, Morningstar calculates a Morningstar Rating based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a fund's monthly performance (including the effects of sales charges, loads, and redemption fees), placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of funds in each category receive five stars, the next 22.5% receive four stars, the next 35% receive three stars, the next 22.5% receive two stars, and the bottom 10% receive one star. (Each share class is counted as a fraction of one fund within this scale and rated separately, which may cause slight variations in the distribution percentages.) A high rating does not necessarily mean a fund had a positive return for the period. The overall Morningstar Rating for a fund is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five-, and ten-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. Morningstar rating is for the A share class only; other classes may have different performance characteristics.

®2009 Morningstar, Inc. 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.

About Calvert

Calvert Investments is an investment management company that offers mutual funds and separate accounts to institutional investors, retirement plans, financial intermediaries and their clients. By combining rigorous analysis with independent thinking, our disciplined approach to money management goes beyond traditional factors in order to manage risk and to identify investment opportunities with greater long-term potential. We offer more than 50 equity, bond, cash, and asset allocation investment strategies, many of which feature integrated corporate sustainability and responsibility research. Founded in 1976 and based in Bethesda, Maryland, Calvert Investments managed assets of more than $14 billion as of November 16, 2009.

Investment in the Fund involves risk, including possible loss of principal invested. The Fund is subject to credit risk, inflation risk and interest rate risk. When interest rates rise, the value of fixed income securities will generally fall.