Morningstar says it has raised its ratings on seven funds, downgraded ratings of one fund and one target-date series, and affirmed ratings for 92 funds and six target-date series in January.
The Chicago-based research group also gave new ratings to three funds.
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 Gold ratings to 145 U.S. funds, Silver ratings to 344 funds, Bronze ratings to 591 funds. The research firm says 688 funds have Neutral ratings, while 18 have Negative ratings.
