543 / 772
13
Morningstar FundInvestor
December 2015
Leaders
Brown Capital Management Small Company
BCSIX
This fund has weathered the departure earlier this
year of longtime comanager Amy Zhang. Its
12
.
1%
year-to-date return bests
98%
of its small-growth
Morningstar Category peers. The fund has a Morning-
star Analyst Rating of Gold. Its managers have a
philosophy of letting winners run, and that strategy
has paid off well this year, as longtime holding
Incyte
INCY
has returned
56%
. Several other holdings
in this concentrated fund—many of them software
firms—have outperformed nicely, such as
Manhattan
Associates
MANH
,
Cantel Medical
CMN
,
Tyler
Technologies
TYL
,
Ellie Mae
ELLI
, and
Blackbaud
BLKB
. Those successes have more than offset
pain from laggards like
Dynamic Materials
BOOM
,
Geopace Technologies
GEOS
, and
Quidel
QDEL
.
Cohen & Steers Realty Shares
CSRSX
A focus on several key real estate subsectors has
helped this Bronze-rated fund to shine this year,
topping
92%
of its domestic real estate peers. Lead
manager Thomas Bohjalian and his team long have
had a preference for the self-storage sector.
Public
Storage
PSA
and
CubeSmart
CUBE
both have
returned more than
30%
this year. Data-center opera-
tors
Equinix
EQIX
and
QTS Realty Trust
QTS
also have
done well. The managers’ decision to keep their posi-
tion in their largest holding,
Simon Property Group
SPG
, above that of their benchmark has paid off as well.
Vanguard Global Minimum Volatility
VMVFX
This passively managed fund has outpaced
95%
of its
world-stock peers in
2015
, returning
7
.
5%
. It has
bested its category this year for a variety of reasons,
including an underweighting in energy and materials
stocks. Currency hedging has contributed to strong
performance, and another benefit has come from an
outsize position in pharmaceutical firm
Galenica
GNHAF
, which has returned
88%
this year.
Laggards
GoodHaven
GOODX
This fund has had another rough year, as its managers’
penchant for despised or ignored stocks has led
them to contrarian picks that haven’t worked out.
Morningstar recently downgraded GoodHaven’s
Analyst Rating to Neutral from Bronze. The fund is on
track for its third-consecutive bottom-decile calendar-
year return. In
2015
, GoodHaven has lagged
98%
of its large-value competitors. The fund has been hurt
by holdings in the battered commodity space,
including
WPX Energy
WPX
,
Barrick Gold
ABX
, and
Birchcliff Energy
, all of which are down
25%
or
more in
2015
. Also, top holding
Walter Investment
Management
WAC
has struggled to return to profit-
ability and is down
12%
for the year.
Royce Special Equity Multi-Cap
RSEMX
This Bronze-rated fund has struggled relative to its
large-blend peers this year. The fund has lost
8
.
3%
and is underperforming
99%
of its category. Manager
Charlie Dreifus has a preference for profitable,
conservatively managed businesses. However, this
concentrated fund also focuses on absolute valua-
tions. That has tended to steer Dreifus and his team
to the consumer cyclical space, which has been
a major detractor this year. Performance has been
dragged down by retail holdings such as
Gap
GPS
,
Nordstrom
JWN
, and
Bed Bath & Beyond
BBBY
and
by media firms such as
Viacom
VIAB
and
Scripps
Networks
SNI
.
American Funds International Growth and
Income
IGAAX
This fund has been held back in
2015
by a sizable
emerging-markets weighting. The fund's
6
.
5%
loss
has trailed
93%
of foreign large-blend peers this year.
Greece’s
Eurobank Ergasias
EGFEF
shed
93%
of its
value from the time that this fund’s managers bought
it in
2014
’s third quarter until they gradually sold
it over the next year. Others emerging-markets picks
also have been weak, including casino operators
MGM China Holdings
and
Wynn Macau
, Indian
bank
ICICI Bank
ICICIBANK
, Spanish bank
Banco
Santander
SAN
, and Greek bank
Piraeus
BPIRY
.
K
Contact Robert at
robert.goldsborough@morningstar.comTen Worst-Performing Funds
Fund Name
YTD Cat Rank %
Sequoia
100
Longleaf Partners
99
RiverPark/Wedgewood Retai 99
Royce Special Equity Mult
99
GoodHaven
98
JOHCM International Selec 98
Loomis Sayles Investment
98
ASTON/TAMRO Small Cap N 96
ClearBridge Aggressive Gr
96
Janus Contrarian T
96
Ten Best-Performing Funds
Fund Name
YTD Cat Rank %
Clipper
1
DoubleLine Total Return B
1
Fairholme Focused Income
1
Fidelity Overseas
1
T. Rowe Price Capital App
1
T. Rowe Price Global Tech
1
T. Rowe Price Media & Tel
1
Vanguard Interm-Term Invm 1
Vanguard Tax-Managed Bala 1
ASTON/Montag & Caldwell B 2
Brown Capital Enjoying a Strong Year
Leaders & Laggards
|
Robert Goldsborough