JPMorgan Small Cap Blend Fund earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating.
The predominant contributor to the rating is the fund's excellent long-term risk-adjusted performance. This can be seen in its five-year alpha calculated relative to the category index, which suggests that the managers have shown skill in their allocation of risk. The parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 56% also supports the rating. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and outperformed their respective category's median Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return for the period. Their compelling success ratio suggests that the firm does well for investors and that this fund may benefit from that. Lastly, the process is limited by being an actively managed strategy. Historical data, like Morningstar's Active/Passive Barometer, finds that actively managed funds have generally underperformed their passive counterparts, especially over longer time horizons.
This strategy has tended to hold more growth stocks than others in the Small Blend Morningstar Category. But in terms of size exposure, it is similar to the average. Examining additional factor exposure, this strategy tilts consistently toward stocks with lower quality or the shares of companies with more financial leverage and lower profitability, compared with Morningstar Category peers over the past few years. Lacking this ballast, the fund's prospects could rest on its ability to beat peers during economic booms. In the latest month, the strategy was also less exposed to the Quality factor compared with Morningstar Category peers. This strategy has also demonstrated a bias towards lower-momentum stocks over its peers over the past years. Momentum investors tend to expect stocks that have done well recently to continue to do so in the short term. Momentum approaches can entail higher turnover and trading costs since the top stocks can often change. Similarly, in recent months, the strategy also had less exposure to the Momentum factor than peers. Additionally, the managers have consistently taken on more risk, demonstrated by higher volatility exposure than peers. This is a higher-risk, higher-reward approach. In this month, the strategy also had more exposure to the Volatility factor over its peers. More information on a fund and its respective category's factor exposure can be found in the Factor Profile module within the Portfolio section.
The portfolio is overweight in technology by 4.1 percentage points in terms of assets compared with the category average, and its healthcare allocation is similar to the category. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are financial services and industrials; however, the allocations are similar to the category. The portfolio is composed of 243 holdings and is less top-heavy than peers. Specifically, 11.4% of the portfolio's assets are concentrated within the top 10 fund holdings, as opposed to the typical peer's 24.4%. And finally, in terms of portfolio turnover, this fund trades less regularly than the typical peer in its category, which may result in a lower cost to investors.