The Daily Screen: Mid-Cap Growth Funds With Steady Leadership

Sure, a lot of mid-cap growth funds are sporting solid long-term records, but let's focus on funds where the current manager is responsible for those numbers.

The Daily Screen usually sifts a different fund category each day for those funds that beat their average peer over the last one- and three-year periods. But this week, we're adding manager tenure to our criteria. Given this year's turmoil, it's probably a good idea to shop for funds whose managers have seen a rough patch or two. We're zeroing in on mid-cap growth funds, which typically invest in stocks of companies with market caps between $1.5 billion and $9 billion, with a serious bent toward pricey sectors like technology.

Mid-cap stocks were in the sweet spot of the market just a short while ago, but now it seems the tech/telecom selloff has reached their ranks, too. The average mid-cap growth fund is down 1.1%, which isn't bad compared with the S&P 500's 5.8% slide. Over the past few years investors have focused their attention on big-cap growth stocks, but mid-cap stocks are worth a look too because they offer solid long-term growth prospects. ...