Morningstar recently announced its U.S. Fund Manager of the Year award winners for 2014—featuring managers with Primecap Management, JPMorgan, Western Asset, Robeco Boston Partners and Dodge & Cox.
Morningstar selected managers who not only delivered impressive performance in 2014 but also showed excellent long-term risk-adjusted returns in five categories: domestic stock, international stock, fixed income, alternatives and allocation.
Domestic Stock
Morningstar awarded the Domestic-Stock Fund Manager of the Year award to the team from Primecap, which includes Theo Kolokotrones, Joel Fried, Al Mordecai, Mohsin Ansari and James Marchetti. The team runs three Primecap funds and three sub-advised Vanguard funds: Primecap Odyssey Aggressive Growth (POAGX), Primecap Odyssey Growth (POGRX), Primecap Odyssey Stock (POSKX), Vanguard Capital Opportunity (VHCOX), Vanguard Primecap Core (VPCCX) and Vanguard Primecap (VPMCX).
According to Morningstar, in 2014, all six funds under the Primecap team generated returns greater than 13.5%, ranking in the 11th percentile or better in their categories. Four of the six funds finished in the top 1% of their categories.
Three of the managers have more than $1 million invested in each of the six funds, and two managers have between $100,000 and $500,000 invested in each. Jon Hale, Morningstar's director of manager research for North America, called the long-term record of these winning Primecap funds "outstanding."
"The team has made a lot of money for many people at a low cost," Hale said in a statement. "All six funds place in the top 5% of their categories over the trailing 10-year period, and Vanguard Primecap and Vanguard Capital Opportunity have 15-year records that respectively rank in the top 2% and top 1% of the large-growth category."
The Primecap team previously won Morningstar's Domestic-Stock Fund Manager of the Year award in 2003 for Vanguard Primecap and Vanguard Capital Opportunity.
Charles Pohl, Diana Strandberg and team with Dodge and Cox International Stock (DODFX) were awarded Morningstar's international-stock fund manager of 2014. The nine-person Dodge and Cox International Stock policy committee runs this fund, and each of the members has been with Dodge and Cox for more than a decade. The team also won this award in 2004.
In fixed income, Ken Leech, Carl Eichstaedt and Mark Lindbloom with Western Asset Core Bond (WACSX) and Western Asset Core Plus Bond (WAPSX) were awarded top honors by Morningstar.
"The performance of Leech, Eichstaedt and Lindbloom really stood out in 2014, even as the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program ended, long-term bond yields continued to fall, and a sell-off occurred in the broader emerging-markets space," Hale said in a statement. "Over the last few years, the team has deftly steered through rocky periods in the bond market."
