The Daily Screen: The Best Mid-Cap Growth Funds

Today, let's check out one of the market's sweetest spots -- mid-cap growth funds.

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Over the past 12 months, the average mid-cap growth fund is up more than 20%, dusting the S&P 500 by more than 22 percentage points, according to Morningstar. These highflying funds typically invest in stocks of companies with market caps between $1.5 billion and $9 billion. They get the "growth" label because they typically invest in companies that are growing their earnings faster than their peers -- often buying shares at steep valuations.

But plowing money into these funds just because of their recent returns isn't a good idea because they can be volatile, losing 7.5% over the last three months, for instance. But if you don't already have mid-cap growth exposure and you're looking to get into the game for the long term, we've done some scouting for you.

We've screened the 230-fund category to single out the funds that beat their average peer over the last one- and three-year periods, according to Morningstar. Here's a top-10 list, ranking the funds by their one-year returns. We've also screened these leading funds' portfolios to pick out their collective top-10 stock picks, but first the funds.

Design of a Decade Mid-cap growth funds have been stellar performers over one, five and 10 years.
	Avg. Mid-Cap Growth fund	S&P 500
YTD Return	0.9%	-7.2%
1-Year Return	21.2	-1.6
5-Year Return	20.6	19.3
10-Year Return	21.4	18.1
Source: Morningstar. Annualized performance figures through Nov. 15.

Here you've got a who's who of highflying, tech-heavy growth funds. Consider that the (PBHEX)PBHG Select Equity, (BRAGX)Bridgeway Aggressive Growth and (POGSX)Pin Oak Aggressive Stock funds averaged more than a 126% gain last year.

Leading Mid-Cap Growth Funds These funds have cruised past the broader market and their mid-cap growth peers.
Fund	1-Year Return	3-Year Annualized
(PBHEX)PBHG Select Equity	65.9%	49%
(CVGRX)Calamos Growth A	63.6	41.9
(NEEGX)Needham Growth	59.6	37.5
(ARTMX)Artisan Mid Cap	54.5	40.9
(BRAGX)Bridgeway Aggressive Growth	52.9	43.9
(SSMGX)Sit Small Cap Growth	49.2	34.5
(SCFIX)Seligman Capital A	48.8	31.2
(POGSX)Pin Oak Aggressive Stock	48	52.8
(MCGEX)MFS Instl Mid-Cap Growth	46.3	37.4
(FMCCX)Fidelity Advisor Mid Cap Instl	46	27.9
Avg. Mid Cap-Growth fund	21.2	25
S&P 500	-1.6	13.8
Source: Morningstar. Annualized performance figures through Nov. 15.

In addition to the funds on our list, you might look at other high-octane options like the (JAENX)Janus Enterprise fund or the (FIDYX)Invesco Dynamics fund. If you're looking for a less aggressive route to mid-cap exposure, check out the (RPMGX)T. Rowe Price Mid-Cap Growth fund or some mid-cap blend funds, which typically hold both growth and value stocks.

If you're wondering how much tech are in these leading funds, consider that nine of their cumulative top-10 holdings are tech companies with strong Internet ties like networker JDS Uniphase (JDSU) (set to soon swallow SDL(SDLI)), online security concern VeriSign(VRSN) and data storage shop Network Appliance(NTAP).

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
JDS Uniphase(JDSU)	1.8%	5
PMC-Sierra(PMCS)	1.7	7
SDL(SDLI)	1.3	4
VeriSign(VRSN)	1.3	3
Network Appliance(NTAP)	1.2	6
Advanced Micro Devices(AMD)	1.1	3
Juniper Net(JNPR)	1.1	4
Timberland CI A(TBL)	1	1
Brocade Communications Systems(BRCD)	1	3
Veritas Software(VRTS)	0.9	4
Source: Morningstar. Holdings as of funds' most recent portfolio reports.

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