Skip to Content
Morningstar

A Reliable World Large-Stock Option With a Superior Record

A Reliable World Large-Stock Option With a Superior Record

Alec Lucas: Gold-rated American Funds New Perspective is one of the most reliable options in the world large-stock Morningstar Category. Since its 1973 inception, the fund has focused on companies benefiting from changing global trade patterns and navigated various protectionist measures along the way.

Regardless of market climate, American's multimanager system sets up this fund for success. Other than sticking to companies that receive at least 25% of their revenues from outside their home region and have at least a $3 billion market cap float at time of purchase, this fund's seven named managers are free to run their separate sleeves of the overall portfolio in line with their own styles.

The fund's portfolio stays grounded in multinational blue chips, but it isn't lacking in aggressive picks, as the presence of Tesla attests. Since entering the portfolio in early 2015, Tesla's struggles to turn a profit have led it to be more than 3 times as volatile as the MSCI All-Country World Index. Yet, thanks to the fund's globally diversified portfolio, the fund itself has hardly missed a beat and maintains a superior record over the long and short term.

More in Funds

About the Author

Alec Lucas

Director of Manager Research
More from Author

Alec Lucas is director of manager research, active funds research, for Morningstar Research Services LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. He is a voting member of the Morningstar Medalist Ratings Committee for U.S. and international fixed-income strategies, covers fixed-income strategies from asset managers such as Baird and American Funds.

Lucas is also active in parent research. He is a voting member of the U.S. parent ratings committee and previously served as the lead analyst for Franklin Templeton, Capital Group, and Vanguard, among other firms.

Lucas was a strategist on Morningstar's equity strategies team prior to assuming his current role in June 2022. He covered equity strategies from asset managers such as Primecap and American Funds and received the 2019 Citywire Professional Buyer Rising Star Award.

Before joining Morningstar in 2013, Lucas worked as a minister as well as a professor for Loyola University Chicago, among other institutions. From 2010 to 2011, he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Heidelberg.

Lucas holds bachelor's degrees in philosophy and classics from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he graduated summa cum laude and with departmental honors, and a Master of Divinity, summa cum laude, from Trinity International University. He also holds a doctorate in theology, with distinction, from Loyola University Chicago and has published several articles and one book within that field.

Sponsor Center