The Daily Screen: The Best Small-Cap Growth Funds

Small-cap growth funds are down this year, but they make sense for a long-term investor.

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First things first, these funds typically focus on the fastest growing stocks with a market capitalization below about $1.5 billion. Since there are thousands of small-caps out there -- many with little or no coverage from Wall Street analysts -- a fund can often be a cheap and easy way to get access to these small fries without having to bet the farm on one or a few shaky shops.

And there's reason to bother: These young, smallish companies are less stable than big-cap household names, but they also can offer more growth potential. Over the past 10 years, the average small-cap growth fund's 19.8% annualized return beats the S&P 500 by more than a percentage point each year.

After the past few years as big-cap growth stocks have led the market, your portfolio might have a major slant toward bigger names. If so, a small-cap fund could be a good way to diversify your stock holdings as long as you won't need the money for at least five or 10 years.

Acorns Small-cap growth funds have delivered mightily this year.
	Avg. Small-Cap Growth	S&P 500
YTD Return	-1.8%	-6.2%
1-Year Return	19.1	-0.5
5-Year Return	16.1	19.6
10-Year Return	19.8	18.2
Source: Morningstar. Annualized performance figures through Nov. 13.

We've sifted the group to single out those funds that beat their peers over the past one- and three-year time periods, according to Morningstar. Here's a top-10 list, ranked by one-year return.

Leading Small-Cap Growth Funds These funds have bested their peers in recent years.
Fund	1-Year Return	3-Year Annualized
(GCBLX Quote) Green Century Balanced	68.4%	24.7%
(KOPPX Quote) Kopp Emerging Growth A	61	39.5
(FMIOX Quote) FMI Focus	55.4	39.7
(FRMPX Quote) Firstar MicroCap Ret A	51.4	34.9
(WMICX Quote) Wasatch Micro Cap	50	24.4
(BCSIX Quote) Brown Capital Mgmt Small	49.5	25.9
(BISCX Quote) Brinson US Small Cap Growth	48.2	17.7
(RKGRX Quote) Rockland Growth	44.3	38.6
(PSSCX Quote) PBHG Strategic Small Co.	41.7	20.8
(FUSMX Quote)Fremont US Micro Cap	39.8	37.8
Avg. Small Cap Growth fund	19.1	14.9
S&P 500	-0.5	14.2
Source: Morningstar. Annualized performance figures through Nov. 13.

One caveat with small-cap funds is that they tend to close -- or should close -- once they top $1 billion to $2 billion in assets. Since they tend to focus primarily on small, thinly traded stocks, they can move stock prices as they build positions, denting their returns.

Two funds that made our list, (WMICX Quote)Wasatch Micro Cap and (FUSMX Quote)Fremont US Micro Cap, are currently closed to new investors. This doesn't necessarily mean they're closed forever, though -- the No. 2 fund on our list, (KOPPX Quote)Kopp Emerging Growth, was once closed but is now open.

Among the other funds, you've got plenty to choose from. At the top of the list is (GCBLX Quote)Green Century Balanced, which is one of the odder funds out there. The no-load fund blends an aggressive portfolio of stocks with a tech and health care bent, with a bond portfolio. Jackson Robinson has held the reins since 1995 and over the past five years the fund's 23.5% annualized return trounces both the S&P 500 and 85% of its small-cap growth peers, though the fund's 2.48% annual expense ratio is well above the category's 1.66% average.

PBHG funds are typically associated with a high-octane style, but the no-load (PSSCX Quote)PBHG Strategic Small Company fund might be worth a look if you're somewhat conservative. Co-managers James Smith and Jerome Heppelmann blend highfliers and some cheap stocks in the fund, earning it a below-average risk score from Morningstar relative to its peers. That approach has worked out well, as the fund's 21.5% three-year annualized return beats the S&P 500 by more than 7% and 75% of its peers.

If you're looking for a fund toward the aggressive end of the scale, you might consider the broker-sold (KOPPX Quote)Kopp Emerging Growth fund. Co-manager LeRoy Kopp and Sally Anderson like tech -- more than 76% of the fund's assets were invested in tech on Sept. 30 -- so you shouldn't buy the fund unless you're ready for some mercurial performance. That said, the fund's 40.9% three-year annualized return tramples the S&P 500 and 98% of the fund's peers.

If you invest on your own and are looking for a similarly high-octane style, consider a couple of tech-heavy, no-load funds that didn't make our list due to lackluster returns this year: (RSDGX Quote)RS Diversified Growth and (VWPVX Quote)Van Wagoner Post-Venture. Both funds have a taste for tech that can hurt them in years like this one, but each has homerun potential. Over the past three years they both beat more than 90% of their peers.

The Van Wagoner fund, with quick-draw manager Garrett Van Wagoner at the helm, boasts a whopping 52.2% three-year annualized return and posted a 237% return in 1999's go-go market.

What stock picks propelled our leading small-cap growth funds? Well, since these managers have thousands of stocks to pick from, it's an eclectic mix with little consensus. They have also ridden up plenty of big-caps like semiconductor shop SDL(SDLI Quote), set to merge with fellow big-cap JDS Uniphase(JDSU Quote).

Under the Hood The stocks with the biggest weighting in the combined portfolios of the 10 above funds.
Stock	Weighting in Top-10 Funds	Number of Top-10 Funds Owning the Stock
SDL(SDLI Quote)	1.4%	1
ADC Telecom(ADCT Quote)	1.1	2
Techne(TECH Quote)	1	4
Zygo(ZIGO Quote)	1	3
Corning(GLW Quote)	0.9	1
Rational Software(RATL Quote)	0.8	1
Anaren Microwave(ANEN Quote)	0.8	3
Quest Diagnostics(DGX Quote)	0.7	2
OSI Pharmaceuticals(OSIP Quote)	0.5	1
Tollgrade Communications(TLGD Quote)	0.5	3
Source: Morningstar. Holdings as of funds' most recent portfolio reports.