In his June 27, 2011 Forbes column, John W. Rogers, Jr., Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Ariel Investments, LLC, writes, “Sometimes it pays to own companies that everyone recognizes as wide-moated, while other times it’s a contrarian view on the moat that matters.”

This article was written by John W. Rogers, Jr. for Forbes and candidly discusses individual holdings. These opinions are current as of the date of the article, but are subject to change. The information provided in the article does not provide information reasonably sufficient upon which to base an investment decision and should not be considered a recommendation to purchase or sell any particular security.

In this article, John Rogers discusses stocks which, at the time of the broadcast, were held in certain portfolios Ariel manages. Portfolio holdings are subject to change. The performance of any single portfolio holding is no indication of the performance of the entire portfolio in which it is held. See current holdings information for Ariel’s portfolios on this web site by selecting a specific mutual fund (or institutional product) and clicking on the “Holdings Details” tab.

The Morningstar Economic Moat^TM rating should not be construed as an indication of future investment success for the funds. Morningstar assigns a zero score to holdings with no moat, a score of three to narrow-moat stocks and a score of five to wide-moat firms. Using these figures each portfolio has an average moat value. And of the 434 mid-blend funds, Ariel Fund has the 36th-highest score as of April 15, 2011.