Mutual Fund Ratings: 10 Biggest Upgrades, Downgrades

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One month does not make a trend, but in this time of excessive stock market volatility, some mutual funds ratings jumped or dove in the most recent period of measurement.

With each additional month of data, TheStreet.com Ratings updates its ranking scorecard, assigning new ratings to each fund. Below is the list of the five most-improved and five most-deteriorated open-end stock mutual funds. The table below shows how each improved or declined based on our most recent Aug. 31 ratings data vs. our July 31 data.

The most-improved stock mutual fund based on risk-adjusted performance ending Aug. 31 is the Parnassus Mid-Cap Fund (PARMX Quote), which was upgraded seven notches to A from C-. This fund's top holdings include Linear Technology (LLTC Quote), Pulte Homes (PHM Quote), Barr Pharmaceuticals (BRL Quote), Intuit (INTU Quote) and Waste Management (WMI Quote).

Ascending nearly as much, the Dividend Growth Trust - Rising Dividend Growth Fund (ICRGX Quote) is the second most-improved open-end stock fund with a new rating of A+ from C+ in the prior month. The fund's notable holdings include IBM (IBM Quote), Automatic Data Processing (ADP Quote) and McDonald's (MCD Quote).

All five of the largest upgrades were from a hold rating to a buy rating. On the other hand, the most-deteriorated list includes funds downgraded to hold from buy as well as funds sliding to sell from hold and to sell from buy.

The largest fall -- nine notches to a rating of E from a rating of B -- was experienced by the Oppenheimer 529 TEP Conservative Portfolio. Also sliding eight notches, the Oppenheimer 529 OR 4-6 Years to College Portfolio now hold the lowest possible rating of E-. Both of these are set up as funds holding other Oppenheimer funds.

Largest Ratings Upgrades and Downgrades
Fund (Ticker), Rating	Previous Rating	Objective	Notches Moved
Parnassus Mid Cap Fund (PARMX), A	C-	Mid-Cap	7 Up
Dividend Growth Tr Rsg Dvd Gr Fd C (ICRGX), A+	C+	Growth & Income	6 Up
Gabelli Westwood Mighty Mites A (WMMAX), A+	C+	Small-Cap	6 Up
Crawford Dividend Growth I (CDGIX), A	C+	Growth - Domestic	5 Up
Columbia Small Cap Value NY 529Z (No Ticker), A	C+	Small-Cap	5 Up
BlackRock Comm Strategies C (MCCDX), E-	C	Sector - Energy/Natural Res	7 Down
DWS International Fd A (SUIAX), C-	A	Non-US Equity	7 Down
ING GET U.S. Core Portfolio -Ser 6 (IGUHX), E+	B-	Equity Income	7 Down
Oppenheimer 529 OR 4-6yrs to Colg B (No Ticker), E-	C+	Growth & Income	8 Down
Oppenheimer 529 TEP Cons Portfolio (No Ticker), E	B	Asset Allocation - Domestic	9 Down
Source: TheStreet.com Ratings

 

 

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