Best-Performing Fund Families
Kevin Baker
04/28/08 - 12:58 PM EDT
With the close of the first quarter, the 426 fund families again vie for the few spots atop our quarterly "ultra" fund family competition.
There are two paths to victory in this contest. The initial way an investment management firm can be considered an "ultra" fund family is to place as many funds as possible on our quarterly top-200 list of open-end funds. This list is being published in section III of our Spring 2008 edition of
TheStreet.com Ratings Guide to Stock Mutual Funds.
For the third quarter in a row, bigger is proving to be better. The same two families raised the bar, securing even more mutual funds in the top 200 than last quarter. Three more
Fidelity funds made the list for a total of 18 spots.
Vanguard also upped its game to 15 top-200 list funds from nine last quarter.
Two other investment houses reached double digits.
American Century Investments placed 13 funds, while
ING Investments, a unit of
ING Groep(ING - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) had 11.
Honorable ultra-fund-family mention goes to
Ivy/Waddell & Reed(WDR - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) with nine,
GE Investment, a unit of
General Electric(GE - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) with eight,
BlackRock with seven, as well as
John Hancock, a unit of
Manulife Financial(MFC - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), with five top-200 list funds.
BlackRock is 49%-owned by
Merrill Lynch(MER - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), 34%-owned by
PNC Financial Services Group(PNC - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and 17%-owned by BlackRock
(BLK - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) employees and shareholders.
The second way we compare fund families is by breaking them into groups by size. This allows us to see which firms have the highest percentage of funds ranked in the top 30% of all open-end funds in comparison to other fund families of similar size. The top 30% represents overall investment grades of A+ do to B-. The middle 40% are fund grades of C+, C, and C-, with D+ and lower in the bottom 30%.
Jumping from eighth place at year's end to first place this quarter,
The Hartford Funds(HIG - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) unseated the six-time ultra-fund family champion,
American Funds, which fell to sixth.
MFS moved up two spots to grab second place with 163 of its 291 rated funds being graded B- or better.
Alliance Bernstein, a unit of
Axa(AXA - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), with 52.7% top 30% funds, and
T. Rowe Price(TROW - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) with 52.1% ranked third and fourth respectively.
The fifth-place large, ultra-fund family is Ivy/Waddell & Reed, which would have ranked first and third on the 40 to 99 table if considered separately, as had previously been the case. Here's another
recent article on that topic.
| Fund Families With 100 or More Rated Funds |
| Fund Family Name |
No. of Funds Rated |
Top 30% |
Middle 40% |
Bottom 30% |
| Hartford Funds, The |
249 |
57.0% |
30.1% |
12.9% |
| MFS |
291 |
56.0% |
27.1% |
16.8% |
| Alliance Bernstein |
368 |
52.7% |
25.8% |
21.5% |
| T. Rowe Price |
117 |
52.1% |
38.5% |
9.4% |
| Ivy/Waddell & Reed Funds |
136 |
49.3% |
30.1% |
20.6% |
| American Funds |
211 |
48.3% |
47.9% |
3.8% |
| Van Kampen |
150 |
44.0% |
42.7% |
13.3% |
| American Century Investments |
170 |
43.5% |
29.4% |
27.1% |
| Fidelity Investments |
624 |
42.1% |
31.9% |
26.0% |
| Vanguard |
134 |
41.0% |
44.8% |
14.2% |
| Russell Funds |
102 |
39.2% |
43.1% |
17.6% |
| Nationwide Funds |
201 |
38.8% |
26.9% |
34.3% |
| BlackRock |
218 |
38.1% |
35.8% |
26.1% |
| Columbia Funds |
454 |
34.8% |
52.9% |
12.3% |
| JPMorgan Funds |
237 |
34.6% |
36.3% |
29.1% |
| ING Investments, LLC |
313 |
32.3% |
44.4% |
23.3% |
| Allianz Global Investors Fund Manag |
127 |
31.5% |
49.6% |
18.9% |
| AIM Investments |
166 |
30.7% |
37.3% |
31.9% |
| Morgan Stanley |
183 |
30.1% |
37.7% |
32.2% |
| Wells Fargo Advantage Funds |
218 |
29.8% |
43.1% |
27.1% |
| Franklin Templeton |
192 |
29.7% |
44.3% |
26.0% |
| Prudential, JennisonDryden, Strategic Partners |
142 |
29.6% |
45.8% |
24.6% |
| MainStay Funds |
106 |
29.2% |
38.7% |
32.1% |
| RiverSource Investments |
150 |
25.3% |
47.3% |
27.3% |
| Goldman Sachs |
129 |
22.5% |
48.1% |
29.5% |
| Principal Financial Group |
413 |
21.5% |
46.7% |
31.7% |
| DWS Scudder |
179 |
20.7% |
44.1% |
35.2% |
| Dreyfus & Mellon Funds |
250 |
20.0% |
44.4% |
35.6% |
| Putnam Funds |
553 |
15.6% |
51.7% |
32.7% |
| OppenheimerFunds |
200 |
14.5% |
50.0% |
35.5% |
| Rydex Funds |
144 |
13.2% |
18.8% |
68.1% |
| MassMutual Funds |
166 |
10.2% |
57.2% |
32.5% |
| Legg Mason |
102 |
7.8% |
44.1% |
48.0% |
| Source: TheStreet.com Ratings |
The best-performing fund family with 40 to 99 rated funds, with nearly half of its funds ranking in the top 30%, is
Janus Fund. This fund family made a dramatic quarter-to-quarter improvement, increasing its top-30% showing to 47.5% from 38.1%. It climbed all the way up from tenth place.
Eaton Vance(EV - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and GE Investment hold the second and third spots.
| The 10 Best Fund Families With 40 to 99 Rated Funds |
| Fund Family Name |
No. of Funds Rated |
Top 30% |
Middle 40% |
Bottom 30% |
| Janus Fund |
99 |
47.5% |
36.4% |
16.2% |
| Eaton Vance |
85 |
47.1% |
36.5% |
16.5% |
| GE Investment |
49 |
44.9% |
44.9% |
10.2% |
| GMO Funds |
45 |
42.2% |
28.9% |
28.9% |
| State Farm |
72 |
41.7% |
41.7% |
16.7% |
| Gabelli Funds |
86 |
40.7% |
32.6% |
26.7% |
| PIMCO Funds |
81 |
35.8% |
33.3% |
30.9% |
| Pacific Life Funds |
90 |
35.6% |
33.3% |
31.1% |
| IDEX Funds |
65 |
32.3% |
46.2% |
21.5% |
| Federated Investors |
58 |
29.3% |
46.6% |
24.1% |
| Source: TheStreet.com Ratings |
HSBC Asset Management(HBC - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) took first place among the smaller fund families, up from third place last quarter.
First Eagle soared to second place, up from twelfth, with two-thirds of its rated funds in the top 30%.
An even more impressive move came from the third-place finisher,
Vantagepoint Funds, as 10 more of its funds scored a B- rating or higher.
| The 10 Best Fund Families With 10 to 39 Rated Funds |
| Fund Family Name |
No. of Funds Rated |
Top 30% |
Middle 40% |
Bottom 30% |
| HSBC Asset Mgmt |
32 |
78.1% |
12.5% |
9.4% |
| First Eagle |
15 |
66.7% |
33.3% |
0.0% |
| Vantagepoint Funds |
27 |
55.6% |
40.7% |
3.7% |
| BARCLAY'S GLOBAL |
11 |
54.5% |
45.5% |
0.0% |
| Diamond Hill Funds |
11 |
54.5% |
27.3% |
18.2% |
| Thornburg Funds |
19 |
52.6% |
47.4% |
0.0% |
| Dimensional Investment Group |
27 |
51.9% |
25.9% |
22.2% |
| Kinetics Mutual Funds, Inc. |
10 |
50.0% |
40.0% |
10.0% |
| Henderson Global Funds |
12 |
50.0% |
25.0% |
25.0% |
| William Blair Funds |
14 |
50.0% |
21.4% |
28.6% |
| Source: TheStreet.com Ratings |
There are 291 fund families that have fewer than 10 rated open-end stock funds. Of these, only
Julius Baer Funds(JBHGF - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) has four out of four rated funds in the top 30%.
The four fund families with three out of three funds in the top 30% are
BHH Mutual Funds,
Cullen Funds,
Industry Leaders Funds and
Jamestown Funds/LB&C.
For an explanation of our ratings,
click here.
