S&P Capital IQ announced Monday the 30 finalists in its second annual U.S. Mutual Fund Excellence Awards Program, with 11 of those funds making a repeat appearance since last year. The Gold, Silver and Bronze recipients in each category will be announced Oct. 17.
The funds were selected based on S&P Capital IQ's quantitative research as having most consistently achieved the highest overall ranking of five stars between Aug. 31, 2010 and Aug. 31, 2011. Among the factors the research process looks for are consistently strong performance, favorable cost factors and high-quality holdings as measured by equity research and S&P credit ratings.
Here are the list of 30 funds that were selected as finalists. The list of 11 repeat finalists is:
- Dreyfus Appreciation (DGAGX)
- Fidelity Low-Priced Stock Fund (FLPSX)
- Meridian Growth Fund (MERDX)
- Vanguard Selected Value Fund (VASVX)
- Janus Triton Fund (JATTX)
- T. Rowe Price Small-Cap Stock Fund (OTCFX)
- Nicholas Fund (NICSX)
- Tweedy Browne Value Fund (TWEBX)
- T. Rowe Price Retirement Income Fund (TRRIX)
- Vanguard STAR Fund (VGSTX)
- T. Rowe Price US Large-Cap Core (TRULX)
The finalists represent a mix of well-known fund companies and managers, as well as several fund families that might not currently be on investors' or advisors' radars, said Todd Rosenbluth, mutual fund analyst at S&P Capital IQ and lead architect in the creation of the S&P Capital IQ's mutual fund methodology.
