Morningstar analysts have taken a critical eye to the fund universe lately. The fund research company just downgraded ratings for 10 funds — including two Vanguard products — and placed one target-date series under review.
On the bright side, its Manager Research Group upgraded seven U.S. funds from providers like Schwab, affirmed ratings for 59 funds and three target-date series; it also gave new ratings to 30 funds.
A month earlier, the Chicago-based research group upgraded seven funds, downgraded four funds and gave new ratings to 29 mutual funds and 33 exchange-traded funds, while placing one fund under review.
The Morningstar Analyst Ratings represent analysts' views that a fund can outperform its peers on a risk-adjusted basis over the long term. The five-tiered, qualitative scale has three positive levels — Gold, Silver and Bronze — as well as neutral and negative ratings.
Overall, 134 U.S. funds have a rating of Gold, 313 are Silver, 509 are Bronze, 509 are Neutral, and an unlucky 13 are Negative.
