13
Morningstar FundInvestor
May 2
014
Leaders
Dreyfus Appreciation
DGAGX
When the market lurches drunkenly, Dreyfus Appre-
ciation’s sobriety pays off. The fund, which lagged
its peers and benchmark in three of the past five
calendar years, has walked a straighter line than
rivals have in this year’s tipsy market; it has gone
from the bottom to the top of the category. The
portfolio’s focus on giant, wide-moat companies—
nearly two thirds of assets—has helped. The fund’s
energy and health-care sector picks, such as
John-
son & Johnson
JNJ
and
EOG Resources
EOG
,
also have been more resilient than the tech, telecom,
and consumer cyclical firms this fund downplays.
American Century Equity Income
TWEIX
American Century Equity Income is another fund that
tends to look better the worse things get. It’s been
fairly predictable in recent years, holding up relatively
well in
2008
and
2011
while falling way behind in
2009
,
2012
, and
2013
. So, recent volatility has been
good for this fund that emphasizes dividends and
will keep
15%
to
25%
of its assets in convertible secu-
rities. The fund’s income orientation has provided
good ballast for this year’s choppy market. Like Dreyfus
Appreciation, positions in energy and health-care
stakes, such as
Total
TOT
and Johnson
&
Johnson,
provided a lift, as well.
Royce Low-Priced Stock
RYLPX
Royce Low-Priced Stock also has reversed its fortunes
so far this year. It finished each of the previous three
years near the very bottom of the small-growth cate-
gory as stakes in beleaguered mining companies
acted like a collective ball and chain on relative and
absolute returns. Many of those same holdings,
such as
Silver Standard Resources
SSRI
, have
escaped their bonds this year and bolstered the
fund’s relative results. Energy-related holdings, such
as drilling data manager
Pason Systems
PSI
, also
have helped propel the fund ahead of
98%
of its
peers so far in
2014
.
Laggards
T. Rowe Price Media & Telecom
PRMTX
There have been few places to hide in the communi-
cation-services sector, which has been one of the
worst areas of the market so far this year. It stands
to reason that T. Rowe Price Media
&
Telecommu-
nications would take it on the chin thus far in
2014
.
This fund has done far worse than its peers, however,
because of volatile Internet stocks, including online
retail giant
Amazon.com
AMZN
and Chinese web
search portal
Baidu
BIDU
. Together they account for
8
percent of the fund’s assets, and both have fallen
by double digits this year.
Dodge & Cox Stock
DODGX
Five years of generally rising stock markets and
some bold stock picks have improved Dodge
&
Cox
Stock’s intermediate-term trailing returns, but few
will mistake it for a tame stock fund since the finan-
cial crisis. Buying out-of-favor stocks and holding
them when others lose their nerve has proved profit-
able over the long term for the fund and its long-
term shareholders, but market volatility can take its
toll periodically on deep-value funds like this one.
Recently tech picks, such as anti-virus software maker
Symantec
SYMC
, and select financial picks, such
as
Goldman Sachs
GS
, have weighed on returns.
Touchstone Sands Capital Select Growth
PTSGX
If Tech has singed Dodge
&
Cox, it has charred
Touchstone Sands Capital Select Growth. The fund
had rattled off several strong years in a row due in
part to high-flying long-term holdings like
Starbucks
SBUX
and
Salesforce.com
CRM
. Those, and other
large holdings like Amazon.com and
LinkedIn
LNKD
,
however, have given back some of the past years’
gains in recent months and sent this fund to the
bottom of the large-growth category. The fund, which
has more than a third of its assets in tech stocks,
had lost more than
5%
through April, but its long-term
returns remained very strong.
œ
Ten Worst-Performing Funds
Fund Name
YTD Cat Rank %
CGM Focus
100
Scotia Dynamic U.S. Growt 100
T. Rowe Price Media & Tel 100
Vanguard Precious Metals 100
Baron Opportunity Retail
99
CGM Realty
99
Ariel Discovery Investor
98
Auxier Focus Inv
98
Third Avenue Internationa 98
Eaton Vance Floating Rate 97
Ten Best-Performing Funds
Fund Name
YTD Cat Rank %
ClearBridge Aggressive Gr
1
FPA Perennial
1
Fairholme Focused Income 1
Matthews India Investor
1
Loomis Sayles Investment
2
Manning & Napier Equity
2
Royce Low Priced Stock Sv 2
Vanguard PRIMECAP Core In 2
Vanguard PRIMECAP Inv
2
Virtus Foreign Opportunit
2
Dreyfus Appreciation Holding Up Nicely
Leaders & Laggards
|
Dan Culloton
