Building a business with integrity.

We've built a strong line-up of funds, all with one thing in common: to meet the needs of our shareholders, always managed in their best interest.

About Hennessy Funds

We offer high-conviction strategies that can play a role in nearly every investor's portfolio.

Company Overview

  • Company Founded

    1989

  • Assets Under Management

    $3.7 Billion

  • Number of Funds

    17

Hennessy Funds offers a broad range of funds, including exchange traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds in these categories; traditional equity, specialty, and sector funds, as well as more conservative multi-asset products. Our goal is to provide products that investors can have confidence in, knowing their money is invested as promised, with their best interest in mind.

Markets can be volatile. Media headlines may trumpet doom one day, rosy outcomes the next. In both turbulent and steady times, we stick to our time-tested strategies, and we focus on long-term results. Our team of tenured managers has the skill, experience, and confidence needed to build and maintain high-conviction portfolios through all types of market conditions.

We believe it’s critical for our shareholders to fully understand the strategies, risks, and costs of investing, as well as the potential rewards. That’s how successful long-term partnerships are built.

“Our founding principle of ‘Shareholders First’ still guides us each day.”
Teresa Nilsen, Executive Vice President

Our History

Hennessy Advisors, Inc., the investment advisor to the Hennessy Funds, was founded in 1989 in the San Francisco Bay Area by Neil J. Hennessy, who had been a successful stockbroker, branch, regional, and divisional manager for Paine Webber. He named the company in honor of his father, Edward J. Hennessy, who had also been a successful stockbroker. Neil believed that his father embodied the ideals that would make his business successful.

Hennessy Advisors was founded on the principles of treating customers honestly and ethically, building strong partnerships, and managing money for the sole benefit of shareholders, and those same principles guide us today, over 30 years later.

The firm became an SEC-registered investment advisor in 1990 and later expanded to managing open-end mutual funds. Our first fund, the Hennessy Balanced Fund, opened in 1996, followed soon thereafter by the Hennessy Total Return Fund in 1998.

Following ten successful, strategic acquisitions, the Hennessy family of products now includes exchange traded funds (ETFs), and mutual funds covering domestic equity, multi-asset, sector, and specialty categories.

Hennessy Funds is headquartered in Novato, CA, and maintains offices in Boston, MA, Chapel Hill, NC, and Austin, TX.

  • 1989
    Neil Hennessy founds the firm
  • 1990
    Registered as an Investment Advisor
  • 1996
    Launched the first mutual fund, the Hennessy Balanced Fund
  • 1998
    Launched the second mutual fund, the Hennessy Total Return Fund.
  • 2000
    Acquired the Cornerstone Value and Cornerstone Growth Funds
  • 2003
    Acquired the SYM Select Growth Fund to launch the Hennessy Cornerstone Mid Cap 30 Fund
  • 2004
    Acquired the Linder Funds and merged five funds into existing Hennessy Funds
  • 2005
    Acquired the Henlopen Fund to launch the Hennessy Cornerstone Growth Fund, Series II (which subsequently merged into the Hennessy Cornertone Growth Fund)
  • 2009
    Acquired two Tamarack Funds, one of which launched the Hennessy Cornerstone Large Growth Fund and the second of which was later merged into the Hennessy Cornerstone Value Fund
  • Acquired the SPARX Japan Fund and the SPARX Japan Smaller Companies Fund and renamed them the Hennessy Japan Fund and the Hennessy Japan Small Cap Fund
  • 2012
    Acquired the FBR Funds, merged three funds into existing Hennessy Funds and added the following seven funds: Hennessy Focus Fund, Hennessy Gas Utility Fund, Hennessy Small Cap Financial Fund, Hennessy Large Cap Financial Fund, Hennessy Technology Fund, Hennessy Equity and Income Fund, and Hennessy Core Bond Fund (later liquidated)
  • 2016
    Acquired the two Westport Funds, which were merged into the Hennessy Cornerstone Mid Cap 30 Fund
  • 2017-18
    Acquired three Rainier Funds and merged two of those funds into the Hennessy Cornerstone Mid Cap 30 Fund and one into the Hennessy Cornerstone Large Growth Fund
  • 2018
    Acquired the BP Capital TwinLine Energy Fund and the BP Capital TwinLine MLP Fund to launch the Hennessy BP Energy Transition Fund and the Hennessy BP Midstream Fund
  • 2022
    Acquired the Stance Equity ESG Large Cap Core ETF to launch the Hennessy Stance ESG Large Cap ETF