Five straight months of gains for the S&P 500 stock index. A string of highs for many market benchmarks. An economy that’s growing fast during the pandemic reopening.
Which fund managers did the best job of taking advantage of the situation?
Industrywide, managers did a solid job—although not spectacular, according to The Wall Street Journal’s latest Winners’ Circle survey of outperforming mutual funds. While the S&P soared 38% in the 12-month period ended June 30, the universe of average actively managed U.S. equity funds fell short of that mark, while posting a more-than-respectable average gain of 33% for the same period, according to data from Morningstar.
Still, our survey found that some portfolio managers, teams and strategies rewarded investors more lavishly, with 11 funds posting gains in excess of 100% for the 12 months ended June 30.
Topping the list was (MSSGX), which ended the 12-month period with a remarkable gain of 140%. This is the second quarter in a row that the fund has earned top honors. Dennis Lynch, head of the Counterpoint Global team at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and his colleagues, manage this and other funds that make frequent appearances on our list of outperformers.
