Morningstar says it has raised its ratings on five funds, downgraded ratings for eight funds and affirmed ratings for 70 funds and one target-date series in December.
The Chicago-based research group also gave new ratings to 50 funds and one target-date series.
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.
As of Dec. 31, Morningstar analysts had assigned a Gold ratings to 145 U.S. funds, Silver ratings to 328 funds, Bronze ratings to 600 funds. The research firm says 679 funds have Neutral ratings, while 18 have Negative ratings.