3 Newly Rated Standouts

Susan Dziubinski: Hi, I'm Susan Dziubinski for Morningstar.com. Morningstar's fund research team is always on the lookout for attractive funds to bring under analyst coverage. Today, we're taking a look at three diverse funds that have earned their first Morningstar Analyst Ratings.

Alec Lucas: Davis International's Y shares earn a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Bronze. The fund is managed by Danton Goei of Davis Advisors. He's not new to us. He's familiar to us through his efforts with Davis Global. The fund, though, is a new Medalist. It had a great year in 2019; it had a great year in 2017. But those top-decile finishes were bookended by a bottom-decile finish in 2018. So, the fund's performance can be hit or miss. It's a high-conviction, concentrated portfolio with very big overweights in China and includes privately held companies like MissFresh, a top-10 holding at year-end 2019. This fund is very unique. It's high-risk, but it's also high-reward, and we think over a full market cycle it will serve investors well, but they need to be ready for volatility to ride it through its ups and downs.

Emory Zink: An investor seeking a short-term bond offering might consider Fidelity Limited Term Bond ETF. This strategy boasts an experienced and collaborative portfolio management roster that emphasizes traditional fundamental bottom-up security selection when creating a portfolio that holds a higher allocation to corporate credit than its Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Government Credit 1-5 Year Index and sports a longer duration than its typical short-term bond Morningstar Category peer. These strategy advantages have helped give it an edge over time, and since its November 2014 inception through January 2020, this particular strategy has generated a 2.5% annualized return that outpaced 75% of distinct peers. It earns a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Silver.

Nicholas Goralka: Polaris Global Value is newly rated, but it's been around for a while. Lead manager Bernie Horn has led the strategy since its 1998 inception, over which time he's slowly built up a supporting cast to now include three comanagers and five analysts. Each member on the team is a generalist as Horn thinks it's important for everyone to have their own macro view of how the global economy operates. This team has done well to execute their strategy with discipline over the years, focusing on sustainable cash flows, which has resulted in strong performance over the strategy's history. It's priced reasonably, and we believe that this team and process can generate outperformance going forward. It earns a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Bronze.