9 Stocks Giving Mutual Funds a Breakout Year

2. Parnassus Fund (PARNX)

Summary: Last year, the fund lost 5% of its value, nearly double the multi-cap core fund peer group's average decline of 2.75%. But the three-year total return is excellent at an annualized return of 20.7%, versus its peer group's 16.4%.

"The fund has no sales load, and its net current expense ratio of 0.97% is notably below the peer average of 1.38%," writes Cathers. It's off to a blazing start, up 9.5% this year, putting in the top 1% of the funds in its category. A few of its top-rated stock holdings include:

Wells Fargo (WFC) Company profile: Wells Fargo is one of the nation's largest banks, with $1.3 trillion in assets and 6,600 offices.

Analysts' take: They view it as an efficient organization that has been able to boost profits by cross-selling to its existing customer base. It gets eight "buy" ratings and two "holds" from analysts. S&P has a $33 price target on its shares, about a 10% premium to the current price.

Qualcomm (QCOM)

Company profile: Qualcomm develops and licenses wireless technology and manufactures semiconductors for mobile phones. It owns many wireless communications industry patents that it licenses to most major handset makers. It has a market value of $97 billion.

Analysts' take: It has a relatively impregnable niche in the wireless industry, and also has a big presence in the competitive semiconductor market, where the firm is a key supplier of chips to wireless handset makers. It also generates royalty revenue by licensing its intellectual property. S&P has a $73 price target on its shares, a 26% premium to the current price. It gets 22 "buy" ratings, 16 "buy/holds," eight "holds," and one "sell" from analysts.

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)

Company profile: Hewlett-Packard makes hardware and software, and offers services to businesses, governments, and individuals, worldwide. It has a market value of $56 billion.

Analysts' take: It has a recent tumultuous past but is an industry leader with wherewithal to buy its way into new business opportunities. Analysts ratings are all over the place with 10 giving it a "buy" rating, three "buy/hold," 17 "hold," three "weak/hold," and two, "sell."

Cathers said that it gets an A-quality rating and an S&P Fair Value rating of 5, the firm's highest, and that its quantitative metric indicates that it's undervalued.

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