These Highly Rated Active Funds Maintain Style Consistency in a Chaotic World

Sometimes Oakmark Select OAKLX maps to large value, sometimes it maps to large blend. I own the fund, but I don’t mind that it moves around a bit. I have other large-cap funds to rely on for value and growth exposure, and I bought Oakmark Select understanding that Bill Nygren’s definition of value encompasses names that would generally be classified as blend or growth.

Moreover, because it is concentrated, one trade could be enough to move the fund’s centroid to a new spot in the Morningstar Style Box. Or it could be that a longtime holding’s valuations move enough to nudge the fund even without any trades taking place.

However, if DFA International Small Company DFISX moved into mid- or large caps, that would be a problem because it is my only foreign small-cap fund. That’s highly unlikely, as the fund is dedicated to that space; DFA’s forte is small caps, and the SEC’s name rule requires that a fund be 80% in the type of securities implied by its name.

There are funds you rely on for exposures and others you expect to move without throwing off the portfolio balance you need.

Morningstar calculates a style consistency metric, which is then grouped into three buckets: high, medium, and low. It measures how much a fund has moved around the style box using the standard deviation of those moves over the past three years. That includes moving side to side (value-growth) as well as up and down (market cap.)

As the Oakmark Select example illustrates, a low consistency rating doesn’t necessarily mean that a fund is not adhering to its stated strategy; it could mean only that it is moving around the style box.

Let’s look at active funds that rate high for style consistency, so you can choose a consistent fund when you need one to provide reliable exposure. I have limited it to those with Morningstar Medalist Ratings of Gold or Silver because you want more than mere consistency.

Market-cap-weighted index funds like Vanguard Total Stock Market Index VTSAX

are reliably consistent, but it’s less clear which active funds are, so that will be my focus.

Solid and Gold

American Funds American Mutual AMRMX has mandates for dividend-paying industry leaders and income. That keeps the fund on the straight and narrow. It stays near the value/blend border because its mandate for industry leaders results in higher-quality names than a pure income strategy would have.

Only 300 stocks meet the tests, which include an investment-grade credit rating and industry leadership. Management cuts that down to around 150 to 180. It also helps that the fund has a stable management team.

Causeway Global Value CGVVX makes its camp just to the value side of the value/blend border in large caps. The strategy is a nice blend of quantitative and fundamental analysis aimed at finding temporarily depressed stocks that are healthy enough to rebound. Many value stocks are traps that seem cheap but just keep deteriorating, so it’s a harder task than it sounds. But Causeway does a nice job of it.

DFA US Small Cap DFSTX is officially actively managed, but it acts more like a well-designed index fund. It owns about 2,000 stocks, and its costs are pretty low, but not index-fund low. It aims to own the bottom 10% of the US market capitalization. It screens in profitable companies and screens out REITs and recent IPOs. It trades in a flexible way that adds value rather robotically, like an index fund. It stays in the lower-cap part of the style box, on the value side of the small-blend Morningstar Category.

Dodge & Cox Global Stock DODWX and Dodge & Cox International Stock DODFX are value stalwarts. As with American Funds, a deep team of managers and analysts ensures stability and consistency in strategy. Unlike American Funds American Mutual, there’s no income mandate for these funds. They are simply looking for good companies at relatively low prices. The funds hug the value/blend line of the style box as their process is more relative value than deep value. The funds are run by patient managers who typically keep turnover below 30%. (I own Dodge & Cox International Stock.)

The Silver Section

T. Rowe Price runs a lot of funds that have a specific style-box point in their names, so it’s not surprising that they are well represented here. When there’s a manager change at a T. Rowe fund, its strategy remains unchanged, other than some minor tweaks.

Beyond that, these eight Silver-rated T. Rowe funds represent a variety of approaches.

T. Rowe Price Mid-Cap Growth RPMGX is going through a big transition. Brian Berghuis has done a strong job for more than 30 years at the fund and will retire at year-end. We lowered our People and Process ratings, but only to Above Average, reflecting our confidence in new lead manager Ashley Woodruff. She has worked through a long transition on the fund and aims to maintain Berghuis’ strategy, though she may tolerate higher multiples from great businesses.

Two quant funds are on the list. They are diversified and disciplined, so good bets to stay consistent. T. Rowe Price Integrated U.S. Small Cap Growth Equity PRDSX and T. Rowe Price Integrated U.S. Small-Mid Cap Core Equity TQSMX match quantitative models with fundamental work by T. Rowe analysts to build differentiated but reliable portfolios.

T. Rowe Price Small-Cap Value PRSVX might seem an odd entry on this list, given that we have it in the small-blend category. It does stick near the value/blend border, but it reflects that T. Rowe has a different definition of small value. Manager David Wagner cares about valuation, but he also integrates growth-leaning tests like market leadership and balance-sheet strength.

T. Rowe Price Global Value Equity TRGVX, T. Rowe Price International Disciplined Equity PRCNX, T. Rowe Price International Discovery PRIDX, and T. Rowe Price International Value Equity TRIGX illustrate that they stick to their knitting overseas.

Although Global Value Equity tries to be opportunistic, it has hugged the value/blend border consistently as manager Sebastien Mallet aims for a balance between deeper value and more defensive quality names. Federico Santilli keeps International Disciplined Equity firmly anchored in large blend. He wants high-quality companies at modest prices, and he’s built a good record doing so. International Value Equity’s Colin McQueen has really impressed in six years at the fund, which is higher in market cap and further to the value side than the other international T. Rowe funds. The emphasis is on out-of-favor but still solid companies.

International Discovery focuses on mid-growth names from around the globe. That would make it a nice complement to the two value funds I mentioned. It’s really the overseas counterpart to T. Rowe Price Mid-Cap Growth. Ben Griffiths and team look for profitable but fast-growing businesses that are taking market share.

American Funds takes its prospectus mandates very seriously and sticks to them. Although each portfolio comprises many separate sleeves run by managers operating independently, that focus keeps the funds on the right path.

Thus, we find four Silver-rated international strategies from American Funds that have consistency ratings of high. American Funds International Growth and Income IGAAX fits in the large-blend box. It aims to have an above-market yield before fees in its equity portfolio, and pursues a growth and income strategy that leads to a foreign large-blend fund.

American Funds Eupac AEPGX and American Funds New Perspective ANWPX map to large growth. Eupac puts a huge asset base to work through an array of seasoned managers who build a diversified growth portfolio. New Perspective does the same, only with a global focus rather than a foreign emphasis.

And American Funds Smallcap World SMCWX maps to mid-growth, but this is a wide-ranging portfolio. Its 840 or so holdings are spread across the style box. It has 10% in large caps, 37% in mid-caps, 38% in small caps, and 8% in micro-caps. About half the fund is in the US, and the rest is overseas. In short, Smallcap World covers a lot of ground.

MFS is another firm I would expect to make this list. It aims to be very consistent with clear risk controls and definitions of investment universes. MFS Mid Cap Value MVCAX and MFS New Discovery MNDAX are highly consistent in their strategies. Both have large asset bases for their categories but stay firmly rooted in mid-value and small growth, respectively.

MFS Mid Cap Value seeks durable businesses trading at modest prices, and it is disciplined about cutting positions that no longer meet its tests or stray from mid-value. MFS New Discovery’s Michael Grossman seeks companies with the potential to disrupt their industries. He manages with a little more risk aversion and less FOMO than his peers.

Lacking Active Participants

Vanguard and Fidelity only have one active fund each with High consistency and Silver or better Medalist Ratings. They have plenty of consistent passive funds but not so much on the active side.

Fidelity Diversified International FDIVX is a mild-mannered growth portfolio that delivers reliable growth exposure without extreme highs and lows. Bill Bower has run the fund for a long time, and he avoids the momentum-driven extremes of large growth.

Vanguard Global Equity VHGEX stays on the blend/ growth border by having two dedicated subadvisors from the growth camp and one from the value camp. Baillie Gifford and Wellington run solid growth portfolios, while Pzena runs a deep-value sleeve. Thus, this fund casts a wide net.

Conclusion

You don’t need all your funds to be highly style-consistent, but it makes portfolio building and maintenance a lot easier to have some.

Sticking to Their Knitting

This article first appeared in the September 2025 issue of Morningstar FundInvestor. Download a complimentary copy of FundInvestor by visiting this website.