A Favorite Foreign-Stock Fund

Greg Carlson: Artisan International (ARTIX) is one of our favorite foreign large-growth funds. Lead manager Mark Yockey has been at the helm since its 1995 inception. He has built a sizable, experienced team of comanagers and analysts over the long term. His comanagers on this fund have been with the team for 15 and 10 years, respectively.

The team invests in a mix of faster-growing fare, more stable-growth companies, as well as a smattering of turnaround plays. They've diverged pretty substantially from their benchmark over the long term, which has led to excellent relative performance most of the time--although occasionally the fund will have a weak year, as it has thus far in 2015.

Chinese Internet search firm Baidu (BIDU) is the main culprit. It's the top holding, and it's down more than 20%, year to date. Yockey still believes in the firm's fundamental prospects, and we feel the same way about this fund. It has moderate expenses, and it earns a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Silver. We think it's a great long-term holding.