Which of Morningstar’s Fund Analyst Picks have done best this year? And worst?
Overall, the company’s choices evidently did okay—especially considering that some of its less fortunate choices seemed, at the time, to have been splendid choices. (Meaning: I owned them.) Example: Dodge & Cox Stock, down 14.5%. Now, the year-to-date returns for the funds in the latest issue of Morningstar Mutual Funds are as of August 31. At that time, the average stock fund had declined 10.5%.
Biggest losers among Morningstar’s U.S. stock favorites:
1. Clipper, -24.32%
2. Schneider Value, -23.65%
3. Selected Special Shares D, - 17.64%
Another Schneider fund also disgraced itself: Schneider Small Cap Value was off 14.87%.
Best performers:
1. FPA Capital, + 2.41%
2. Royce Special Equity, + 1.92%
3. Diamond Hill Small Cap A, + 1.73%
4. Third Avenue Small Cap Value, + 0.56%
5. Allianz NFJ Small Cap Value D, + 0.43%
These, by the way, are the ONLY Morningstar choices that were above water year to date (as of Aug. 31.)
One of my own favorite funds, I am happy to report, hasn’t suffered that much. Fairholme is down only 0.09%.
As for specialty funds, there the winner was BlackRock Global Resources A, up 12.48%.
Biggest loser: no, not financials, but Allianz RCM Technology Institutitonal, - 19.36%. (Good guess, though. Worst-performing financial fund: Davis, down 17.91%.)
Among international funds, there were no winners. The smallest loser: Third Avenue International Value, down “only” 8.96%. Biggest loser: T. Rowe Price New Asia, -37.58%. The average international fund had lost 18.3%.
Among balanced or hybrid funds (down 7.93%), the smallest loser was Vanguard Target Retirement Income, off 1.54%; the biggest loser, American Funds Capital Income Builder, off 11.77%.
Among taxable bond funds, the winners were Harbor Real Return Institutional, + 5.71%; Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities, + 5.08%; Vanguard Long-Term Treasury, + 3.91%; Fidelity Government Income, + 3.65%; and FPA New Income, + 2.57%.
Biggest loser: Western Asset Core Bond Institutional, - 3.98%, followed by Loomis Sayles Bond, - 3.97%.
These results, it seems to me, are a source of one small pleasure—very small. They demonstrate that even professional fund-pickers certainly didn’t escape this market unscathed.
Overall, the company’s choices evidently did okay—especially considering that some of its less fortunate choices seemed, at the time, to have been splendid choices. (Meaning: I owned them.) Example: Dodge & Cox Stock, down 14.5%. Now, the year-to-date returns for the funds in the latest issue of Morningstar Mutual Funds are as of August 31. At that time, the average stock fund had declined 10.5%.
Biggest losers among Morningstar’s U.S. stock favorites:
1. Clipper, -24.32%
2. Schneider Value, -23.65%
3. Selected Special Shares D, - 17.64%
Another Schneider fund also disgraced itself: Schneider Small Cap Value was off 14.87%.
Best performers:
1. FPA Capital, + 2.41%
2. Royce Special Equity, + 1.92%
3. Diamond Hill Small Cap A, + 1.73%
4. Third Avenue Small Cap Value, + 0.56%
5. Allianz NFJ Small Cap Value D, + 0.43%
These, by the way, are the ONLY Morningstar choices that were above water year to date (as of Aug. 31.)
One of my own favorite funds, I am happy to report, hasn’t suffered that much. Fairholme is down only 0.09%.
As for specialty funds, there the winner was BlackRock Global Resources A, up 12.48%.
Biggest loser: no, not financials, but Allianz RCM Technology Institutitonal, - 19.36%. (Good guess, though. Worst-performing financial fund: Davis, down 17.91%.)
Among international funds, there were no winners. The smallest loser: Third Avenue International Value, down “only” 8.96%. Biggest loser: T. Rowe Price New Asia, -37.58%. The average international fund had lost 18.3%.
Among balanced or hybrid funds (down 7.93%), the smallest loser was Vanguard Target Retirement Income, off 1.54%; the biggest loser, American Funds Capital Income Builder, off 11.77%.
Among taxable bond funds, the winners were Harbor Real Return Institutional, + 5.71%; Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities, + 5.08%; Vanguard Long-Term Treasury, + 3.91%; Fidelity Government Income, + 3.65%; and FPA New Income, + 2.57%.
Biggest loser: Western Asset Core Bond Institutional, - 3.98%, followed by Loomis Sayles Bond, - 3.97%.
These results, it seems to me, are a source of one small pleasure—very small. They demonstrate that even professional fund-pickers certainly didn’t escape this market unscathed.
