TheStreet.com Ratings' 'Ultra' Fund Families

As the cyclists in the Tour de France escape the Alps and head up into the Pyrenees, it is time to review how the 433 fund families we track stack up in our "ultra" fund family competition.

In our version of the King of the Mountains, the challenge is to place as many funds as possible on our top-200 list of open-end funds, which is published in the Summer 2007 edition of TheStreet.com Ratings Guide to Stock Mutual Funds.

For the second quarter in a row, Franklin Templeton, a unit of Franklin Resources(BEN Quote), wins the mountain classification, polka dot jersey, with 14 funds on the top 200 list. MFS, a unit of Sun Life Financial (SLF Quote), also placed 14 funds on the list, but it loses the tie-breaker, because this count treats each share class as a unique fund. If we ignore multiple share classes, MFS has only three spots on the list. This compares with six unique funds for Franklin Templeton, more than any other fund family.

AIM Investments, a unit of Amvescap PLC (IVZ Quote), and BlackRock (BLK Quote) both pushed 11 of their riders to the summit, when counting multiple share classes. However, AIM edged out BlackRock by five to three unique funds. And ING Investments, a unit of ING Group N.V.(ING Quote), and Fidelity both placed 10 share classes of four unique funds in the top 200.

After consolidating the multiple share classes, Nationwide Funds, Dimensional Investment Group and GMO Funds emerged as "ultra" fund families, each placing five unique funds in the top 200.

The second way to be considered an "ultra" fund family is to finish the quarter ranked highly in the overall standings of the team competition. In the tour, all the members of a team must do their part to propel their team leader toward the finish line.

For a fund family to bring home the winner's yellow jersey, it must 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+ to B-. The middle 40% are fund grades of C+, C and C-, with D+ and lower in the bottom 30%.

Fund Families With 100 or More Rated Funds
Fund Family Name	No. of Funds Rated	Top 30%	Middle 40%	Bottom 30%
American Funds	211	65.40%	28.90%	5.70%
Franklin Templeton	188	49.50%	31.40%	19.10%
AIM Investments	166	48.20%	33.70%	18.10%
T. Rowe Price	117	47.00%	45.30%	7.70%
Allianz Global Investors	122	46.70%	36.10%	17.20%
Hartford Funds, The	184	41.30%	39.70%	19.00%
Vanguard	128	40.60%	50.80%	8.60%
Goldman Sachs	129	38.00%	28.70%	33.30%
MFS	280	36.80%	43.60%	19.60%
Nationwide Funds	188	36.20%	37.80%	26.10%
Columbia Funds	463	35.90%	45.60%	18.60%
Morgan Stanley	183	35.50%	32.80%	31.70%
ING Investments, LLC	311	35.40%	39.50%	25.10%
JPMorgan Funds	234	35.00%	39.70%	25.20%
RiverSource Investments	164	33.50%	45.70%	20.70%
Dreyfus/Mellon Funds	267	32.20%	36.30%	31.50%
Fidelity	596	32.00%	44.60%	23.30%
American Century Investments	142	31.70%	38.00%	30.30%
BlackRock	217	31.30%	42.90%	25.80%
Wells Fargo Advantage Funds	215	31.20%	37.70%	31.20%
MainStay Funds	110	27.30%	47.30%	25.50%
Van Kampen	145	26.90%	48.30%	24.80%
OppenheimerFunds	153	25.50%	34.00%	40.50%
Principal Financial Group	358	24.30%	54.20%	21.50%
Rydex Funds	117	22.20%	17.90%	59.80%
Alliance Bernstein	305	21.30%	36.70%	42.00%
DWS Scudder	158	20.90%	36.10%	43.00%
MassMutual Funds	125	20.80%	38.40%	40.80%
Delaware Investments	101	18.80%	46.50%	34.70%
Pacific Life Funds	117	17.90%	50.40%	31.60%
Putnam Funds	383	15.90%	62.70%	21.40%
Legg Mason	103	8.70%	37.90%	53.40%
Source: TheStreet.com Ratings

With Lance Armstrong-like consistency, American Funds wins the yellow jersey for the fourth consecutive quarter in the category of families with over 100 rated funds. Just over 65% of its 211 rated funds rank in the top 30%, with just 5.7% in the bottom 30%. Franklin Templeton held onto second position with 49.5% of its 188 rated funds in the top 30%.

Ranked third and fourth in the first quarter, the performance of Vanguard and T. Rowe Price (TROW Quote) hit a rough patch of cobblestones in the second quarter, allowing the steady tempo of AIM Investments to move that fund family into third place.

Top 10 Fund Families With 40-99 Rated Funds
Fund Family Name	No. of Funds Rated	Top 30%	Middle 40%	Bottom 30%
Ivy Funds	83	50.60%	31.30%	18.10%
GMO Funds	46	47.80%	30.40%	21.70%
Gabelli Funds	75	46.70%	22.70%	30.70%
Eaton Vance	82	45.10%	42.70%	12.20%
Royce Funds	44	43.20%	43.20%	13.60%
Pioneer Investments	92	40.20%	25.00%	34.80%
STI Classic Funds	56	32.10%	32.10%	35.70%
IXIS Advisor Funds	42	31.00%	31.00%	38.10%
Evergreen Investments	98	29.60%	40.80%	29.60%
Seligman Group	98	27.60%	50.00%	22.40%
Source: TheStreet.com Ratings

Ivy Funds retained the leadership in the peloton of fund families with 40 to 99 rated funds. GMO Funds and Gamco Investors'(GBL Quote) Gabelli Funds reversed their second and third place finish from the first quarter.

The 10 Best Fund Families With 10 to 39 Rated Funds
Fund Family Name	No. of Funds Rated	Top 30%	Middle 40%	Bottom 30%
Thornburg Funds	17	100.00%	0.00%	0.00%
Lazard Funds	11	63.60%	18.20%	18.20%
Dimensional Investment Group	27	63.00%	33.30%	3.70%
HSBC Asset Mgmt	24	62.50%	20.80%	16.70%
American AAdvantage	28	60.70%	28.60%	10.70%
William Blair Funds	13	53.80%	23.10%	23.10%
Neuberger Berman	34	52.90%	23.50%	23.50%
Vantagepoint Funds	19	52.60%	42.10%	5.30%
Forward Funds, Inc.	10	50.00%	50.00%	0.00%
Oakmark	12	50.00%	33.30%	16.70%
Source: TheStreet.com Ratings

Thornburg Funds, Lazard Funds and Dimensional Investment Group again finished first, second and third out of 72 fund families with 10 to 39 rated funds. Of the 296 fund families with fewer than 10 rated open-end stock funds, honorable mention was earned by Westport Funds for having all four of its rated funds in the top 30% and BBH Mutual Funds, Harding Loevner Funds, Industry Leaders Funds and Longleaf Partners for having all three of their rated funds in the top 30%.