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I’m making two changes to the Morningstar
500
this month.
The first addition is a new member of the Fantastic
48
.
Baird Short-Term Bond
BSBIX
has a Morningstar
Analyst Rating of Silver and is a very cheap depend-
able short-term bond fund. The fund charges just
0
.
30%
and has a
$25
,
000
minimum investment. Mary
Ellen Stanek and team have built a strong record since
this fund launched in
2004
. They avoid derivatives
and leverage to focus on basic investment-grade debt.
At the moment, a little more than two thirds of the
fund’s assets are in investment-grade corporate bonds
—
the rest are in mortgages. The fund is also available
for a
$2
,
500
minimum in No Transaction Fee platforms
for an expense ratio of
0
.
55%
.
Bronze-rated
Polen Growth
POLRX
has impressed
with its performance since it was launched in
2010
,
though the firm actually has a track record going
back to
1989
. Managers Damon Ficklin and Dan Davi-
dowitz are patient growth investors who look for
quality growth companies such as
Alphabet
GOOG
,
Visa
V, and
Nike
NKE
. The knock on the
$1
.
1
billion
fund is its
1
.
25%
expense ratio.
See the facing page for more details.
Two Go Out
To make room, I’m dropping
Marsico Growth
MGRIX
and
AMG GW&K Core Bond
MBDFX
.
Marsico Growth has been mired in a long slump.
That’s spurred outflows, which led to rising fees. The
firm has also seen key departures among analysts
and managers and a smaller staff overall. We rate the
$302
million fund Neutral because of these issues.
AMG GW&
K Core Bond is probably still a fine fund,
but we dropped coverage when
AMG
switched to
GW&
K from
PIMCO
. It’s down to just
$440
million in
assets, too.
MFS Global Equity Downgraded to Silver
We lowered
MFS Global Equity
MWEFX
to Silver
from Gold because it won’t be as strong after an
upcoming retirement as it is now.
David Mannheim, who has run this fund with various
comanagers as well as on his own since it opened
in
1992
, will retire in
12
-
24
months. Roger Morley,
who became a comanager on the fund in
2009
, will
remain in place. And Ryan McAllister will become a
comanager on this fund on Sept.
30
,
2016
. Mannheim
is exceptionally seasoned and skilled, and McAllister
has no portfolio-management experience yet, so the
team won’t be as robust once Mannheim leaves.
That said, the team will be much better than average
after Mannheim retires. Morley is quite experienced
and talented himself. McAllister has good credentials
and will serve as a comanager for at least nine
months before Mannheim departs, allowing a good
transition. And the modified team will be supported
by the same roster of stock analysts—which currently
includes
28
U.S. specialists and
35
foreign experts—
as the current team.
K
What is Morningstar
FundInvestor
500
?
The Morningstar FundInvestor
500
features the industry’s
best and most notable funds.
Use the list to get new in-
vestment ideas and track the
funds you already own.
FundInvestor
subscribers have
access to one-page monthly
reports on all 500 funds on
mfi.morningstar.com. Just
type in the name or ticker of
the fund in the search box.
A Conservative Bond Fund
Joins the M500
Changes to the 500
|
Russel Kinnel
Summary of Changes
Add
Drop
Polen Growth
Marsico Growth
Baird Short-Term Bond
AMG GW&K Core Bond
Rating Change (Downgrades)
From
To
Franklin Federal Tax-Free Income
• ´
MFS Global Equity
Œ •
New Ratings
To
Artisan Global Equity
´
Polen Growth
´