Morningstar Awards for Investing Excellence: Outstanding Equity Portfolio Manager Nominees

Today, we’re unveiling the nominees for the 2025 Morningstar Awards for Investing Excellence: Outstanding US Equity Portfolio Manager. They are:

• Will Danoff, Fidelity
• Bill Nygren, Harris Associates
• David Samra, Artisan Partners

To be eligible for the award, managers needed to earn analyst-assigned Morningstar Medalist Ratings of Gold or Silver on at least one fund share class or investment vehicle, as well as a People Pillar rating of Above Average or High. Long, impressive track records and proven investment skill are also important. Morningstar will announce this year’s winner in early July.

Here is what set this year’s nominees apart.

Will Danoff

Danoff has deftly managed a lot of money for a lot of people. In more than 35 years at the helm, Danoff has grown Fidelity Contrafund FCNTX from just $288 million to nearly $157 billion.

Danoff’s approach might be best described as eclectic. Contrafund’s portfolio ranges across hundreds of companies, big and small. Danoff typically favors businesses with clear competitive advantages, promising growth prospects, and capable leadership. And he is bold when he finds such opportunities. That’s why Contrafund recently had more than a quarter of its assets in just two companies: Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Those calls have kept Contrafund near the front of the pack among large-growth funds despite its huge, potentially cumbersome asset base.

While he has not announced retirement plans, Danoff gained two comanagers on Contrafund in April, possibly preparing for a future handoff. When that time comes, the sun will likely set on a highly successful career that has served fundholders well.

Bill Nygren

Nygren, chief investment officer-US, at Harris Associates, has a knack for value investing. Rather than confine themselves to a narrow understanding of value, Nygren and his colleagues have prudently tailored their assessments to each business. Nygren first showed what he could do with these tools on Oakmark Select OAKLX beginning in the mid-1990s; in 2000, he took over Oakmark OAKMX, Harris’ flagship fund, and has led it to even greater heights.

Like Danoff, Nygren has continued to excel as his career progresses. As evidence of his contrarian thinking, he bought Alphabet for Oakmark in 2019, arguing that the parent company of Google and YouTube looked cheap despite the stock’s classic growth-stock traits; he’s done well holding Alphabet ever since. Apart from Alphabet, Nygren has readily looked beyond mega-cap market leaders to find relative dark horse winners. All the while, he’s had a team-first mentality, cultivating a strong US equity group at Harris that complements Nygren’s brilliance.

David Samra

Samra is also a Harris product, but in 2002 he joined Artisan and has established himself as a capable investor in his own right. Under his leadership, Artisan International Value APHKX has posted a topnotch, nearly 23-year record. Like Danoff and Nygren, Samra hasn’t rested on his laurels. Thanks in part to Samra’s strict valuation discipline, Artisan International Value prudently had a bit of cash on hand going into selloffs in 2020 and 2022, which helped limit losses initially and later let Samra pick up bargains as markets rebounded. As a result, the fund outpaced every peer in its foreign large-blend Morningstar Category from its 2002 inception through June 6, 2025, and was the only category constituent to beat the vaunted S&P 500.

Samra also saw his team through a split in 2018, when former comanager Dan O’Keefe turned his attention to Artisan Global Value while Samra stayed focused on international stocks. Such a parting of ways could have damaged Samra’s prospects; he has thrived instead, maintaining his passion for investing while restocking his team.