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Morningstar FundInvestor
August
2015
benchmark sector and country weightings. Since
taking over in
2007
, Leverenz has more than doubled
the returns of benchmark and peers alike.
PIMCO Commodity Real Return Strategy
PCRIX
If inflation ever does come back, you’ll be glad you
owned this fund to offset bond losses. Until then,
though, you’ll probably regret it. The fund owns expo-
sure to a broad array of commodities and throws
in some inflation-protected securities to boot, so you
have two forms of inflation protection. On the down-
side, this fund and nearly all of its competitors are in
the red for the past five years as inflation has been
tamer than tame. One can gain access to this fund
through D shares
PCRDX
, or there is a near-clone
in the form of
Harbor Commodity Real Return
Strategy
HACMX
.
PIMCO Real Return Instl
PRRIX
Although
PIMCO
has had a shakeup, manager Mihir
Worah has been at this fund since
2007
, and he’s
done a fine job. He looks for the best inflation-
protected securities out there among Treasury and
non-Treasury issuers. The fund has done quite
well over time, too. This fund has D shares
PRRDX
and also a near-clone in the form of
Harbor Real
Return
HARRX
.
PIMCO Total Return
PTTRX
This fund is in good hands despite all the drama
around Bill Gross’ exit. It’s run by Scott Mather,
Mihir Worah, and Mark Kiesel. All three are proven
managers with strong track records. The fund has
outperformed benchmark and peers modestly since
Gross left. More important, a tidal wave of out-
flows hasn’t interfered with the smooth running of
the fund, and we expect good things in the future.
This fund has D shares
PTTDX
and a near-clone in
the form of
Harbor Bond
HABDX
.
Primecap Odyssey Aggressive Growth
POAGX
This closed fund has been downright remarkable
since it was launched in
2004
. Managers Theo Kolo-
kotrones and Joel Fried along with the rest of the
team have done a brilliant job of finding great biotech
and tech names at reasonable prices and holding
on until they trade at unreasonable prices. The closest
open substitute would be the large-cap
Primecap
Odyssey Growth
POGRX
, which is also great but
doesn’t have quite the upside that this does.
Royce Special Equity
RSEIX
Charlie Dreifus is one of the best and most original
value investors out there. A disciple of accounting
guru Abe Briloff, Dreifus puts a company’s earnings
and balance sheet under the microscope to ferret
out corner cutting and even outright fraud. It’s a good
fund to own when bad news starts spreading on
Wall Street. This fund is closed, but Dreifus runs an
excellent all-cap fund called
Royce Special Equity
Multi-Cap Service
RSEMX
.
Selected American
SLADX
Can Chris Davis right the ship here? That’s the
question at the only
2
-star fund in our lineup. In
2014
,
Davis changed comanagers when he replaced Ken
Feinberg with Danton Goei. The two have trimmed
the portfolio a bit while adding health-care and
tech stocks. Otherwise, the fund still runs a Warren
Buffett-influenced strategy of looking for good
companies trading below their estimate of “owner
earnings.” The fees and stewardship are strong
here. Performance is strong over Davis’ entire tenure,
but the fund has been in a prolonged slump.
T. Rowe Price High Yield
PRHYX
Mark Vaselkiv has been at the helm for
19
years,
and he’s done a remarkable job. He focuses on issue
selection, and in high yield that’s a very hands-on
process because you have to dig deep to understand
the likelihood that a company will default on its
debt. The fund has posted top-quartile returns for the
trailing five-,
10
-, and
15
-year periods. Like many
of the best high-yield funds, however, it’s closed to
new investors.
T. Rowe Price Small-Cap Stock
OTCFX
This
$9
billion closed fund is a bit of a dullard, but
that’s a good thing in a
401
(k). In his
22
nd year at
the fund, Greg McCrickard has a diffuse
300
-stock
portfolio with no more than
2%
of assets in the
top name. The fund has provided a nice smooth ride
for investors, and its strong relative performances