The Morningstar Ultimate Stock-Pickers Team

Top equity-fund managers made few high-conviction purchase in the third quarter, continuing a nine-quarter trend.

Top managers' focus on high-quality dividend-paying stocks should limit the negative impact of more volatile global equity markets.

What top managers were doing in the months leading up to the global equity market downturn.

Big moves were scarcer in the second quarter among these top money managers.

Our Ultimate Stock-Pickers Index continues to beat the market even as relatively few of our top managers are outperforming the S&P 500.

Top managers continue to find opportunities for some new-money purchases, while taking full advantage of a rising stock market to book gains in shares trading above their fair value estimates.

Top managers were finding new places to put money to work and adding to existing high-conviction ideas in the first quarter.

These top managers continue to focus on higher-quality dividend-paying stocks in a market that has become more volatile of late.

Top managers continue to find opportunities for new-money purchases (albeit fewer than in past periods), while taking full advantage of a rising stock market to book some gains.

These top investment managers put new money to work in several wide-moat names, including United Technologies.

Our Ultimate Stock-Pickers Index continues to beat the market even as relatively few of our top managers are outperforming the S&P 500.

Top managers continue to find new opportunities, while taking full advantage of a rising stock market to book some gains.

The continuing U.S. stock market rally has diminished the number and similarity of purchases across these top managers.

Top managers continue to focus on higher-quality dividend-paying stocks in a fully valued market.

A group of top managers continue to keep looking for good investment opportunities, while taking full advantage of a rising (and potentially overvalued) market to book some gains.

Top managers continue to exercise a lot of patience as they look for buying opportunities in a U.S. equity market that has risen close to 40% since the start of 2013.

While more than one third of these top fund managers are outperforming this year, four of them stand out from the rest given their ability to outperform the market over almost all time periods.

A group of top managers remains cautious and commits more capital to traditional defensive sectors, while taking advantage of a rising (and potentially overvalued) market to book some gains.

The pickings continue to get slimmer for a proven group of top fund managers as the market continues to trade around its all-time high.

Our top managers continue to focus on higher-quality businesses rather than seeking out bargains in a market that (in many of their minds) has become fully valued.

Our top managers remain cautious, focusing more on relative valuation and increasing their willingness to book gains in the face of a rising (but potentially overvalued) market.

Our top managers continue to put money into wide-moat firms.

Our top managers continue to focus on higher-quality businesses, with dividend-paying stocks like Philip Morris International rising to the forefront during the most recent period.

The ongoing rally in the equity markets continues to limit the buying and selling activity of our top managers.

Our top managers continue to find attractive buying opportunities in wide-moat firms.

While a majority of our top fund managers are outperforming this year, five of them truly stand out from the rest given their ability to outperform the market over all time periods.

More volatile equity markets impact the buying and selling activity of our top managers.

Our managers are still finding attractive opportunities in a more richly valued market.

While a majority of our top fund managers are outperforming this year, three of them truly stand out from the rest given their ability to outperform the market over all time periods.

Interest in Apple is heating up as the price falls, but how deep is the conviction?

Increased investor inflows and portfolio reshuffling (driven in part by a fairly valued market), has added breadth to the high-conviction and new-money purchases we've seen so far from our top managers.

While Warren Buffett may have put the kibosh on a dividend for Berkshire's shareholders, he and the rest of our Ultimate Stock-Pickers continue to hold stocks yielding more than the S&P 500 Index.

Technology names dominated our list of top-10 purchases, with Microsoft not only being a top-10 holding for our managers, but one of the highest-conviction purchases during the most recent period.

There has been more breadth than depth in the high-conviction and new-money purchases that we've seen so far from our top managers, even with the increase in investor inflows in early part of 2013.

While few of our Ultimate Stock-Pickers focus solely on dividends, income-paying stocks have become important contributors to the portfolios of many of our top managers.

Unlike previous periods, where the trading activity among our top managers was relatively limited, we saw a marked increase in both purchases and sales during the third quarter and early part of the fourth quarter.

Buying activity waned during the third quarter, as our top managers reacted to the potential for another downturn in the markets. Still, we saw a lot of new money being put to work in select names.

Sales of legacy stock holdings continue to highlight the changing of the guard at Berkshire.

While our list of Ultimate Stock-Pickers is not imbued with equity-income investors, the allure of dividend-paying stocks has not gone unnoticed by our top managers, especially with bond yields at historically low levels and interest rates bound to go up over the next several years.

The decline in the equity markets created plenty of buying opportunities in the most recent period, but some of our managers seem to have jumped into energy stocks sooner than they should have.

Five-star-rated Devon Energy has been the standout buy so far for our top managers.

Sales of legacy stock holdings highlight the changing of the guard at Berkshire.

While few of our Ultimate Stock-Pickers focus solely on dividends, income-paying stocks continue to work their way into the portfolios of our top managers.

Outright sales by several of our Ultimate Stock-Pickers provide us with additional insight into their sell disciplines; selling activity is centered more on position trimming than eliminations.

The runup in the markets during the first quarter increased the importance of good old-fashioned stock picking for our top managers; new-money buys help populate top purchases.

New-money buying activity was up in the first quarter, despite lower buying activity overall.

With Buffett's lieutenants hitting the ground running, will a more collaborative process among Berkshire's newest investment managers prompt a rethinking of long-standing holdings?

Our top managers continue to focus on pharmaceuticals for dividend yield.

Technology continues to gain traction on the more traditional sector commitments of our top managers.

Our top managers continue to be engaged in good old-fashioned stock picking, with Devon Energy and Charles Schwab standing out as top purchases during the most recent period.