JPMorgan Large Cap Value Fund Class I HLQVX

JPMorgan Large Cap Value’s no-nonsense lead manager employs a classic value game plan to good effect and earns Above Average People and Process ratings. Morningstar has enhanced the way we assess alpha opportunity for funds, which is a key component in our ratings calculation. More of this strategy's Medalist ratings than usual may therefore change with this update even in the absence of changes to pillar ratings or fund costs.

Lead manager Scott Blasdell has run the show here since April 2013. He started his value craft under the renowned value investor John Neff at Wellington Management. After coming to J.P. Morgan in 1999, the nasty bear markets from 2000 to 2002 and 2007 to 2009 fortified his foundational belief that valuation levels are critical, especially when quite high or very low.

While Blasdell will occasionally wade into beaten-down fare, he is more of a moderate contrarian than a deep-value investor. He prefers solid companies whose current stock price discounts the likely value of its future long-term cash flows. The first step on most target stocks is a six-year normalized earnings estimate from dedicated teammates John Piccard, Jim Brown, and Amod Gautam or J.P. Morgan’s seasoned 20-person core analyst team. Then the team assesses whether a business can return to form and has sound managers.

This portfolio’s 70- to 110-stock profile shifts with the market. When Blasdell thinks prices are low enough that he can confidently find great prospects, he reduces the number of holdings. When the market is broadly expensive or murky, he diversifies. He has favorite sectors, such as financials and real estate, but doesn’t always lean on them. In mid-2025, for instance, the portfolio underweighted financials relative to the Russell 1000 Value index.

Returns here have been strong from April 2013 through August 2025: The institutional share class gained 11.9% annualized, whipping the Russell 1000 Value Index’s 10.2% and the typical large-value Morningstar Category peer’s 9.9%. The strategy isn’t for all, though. Its emphasis on price dislocation drives high volatility, it often lags in falling markets, and returns depend on great results when value fare is in favor. In growth-led markets like the first nine months of 2025, its returns tend to be subpar.

This direct, clear-cut value strategy earns an Above Average Process rating.

Lead portfolio manager Scott Blasdell bluntly says this approach boils down to comparing stock prices with long-term cash flows. Specifically, his team uses six-year estimates of normalized cash flows to rank Russell 1000 Value Index constituents within their sectors, from least to most pricey. Stocks in the two cheapest quintiles qualify for more work.

The team seeks solid companies that the market has punished too much for short-term problems. It examines these stocks’ industries to assess whether they are in temporary slumps or long-term declines. The team also wants to see that a target company’s earnings and margins are improving. And it studies company management, strongly preferring proven or underappreciated leaders with a good history of capital allocation.

The portfolio usually has between 70 and 110 holdings, and the count usually reflects Blasdell’s confidence in the market’s valuation signal. He diversifies more when market pricing seems more optimistic and concentrates into fewer, cheaper names when pessimism reigns—most recently in the pandemic period. Industry weightings can diverge by up to 10 percentage points from the benchmark’s. Blasdell does see sector and industry allocations as sources of outperformance, believing tilts into undervalued areas can boost returns.

Over the 10 years ended July 2025, the portfolio averaged 94 stocks. But from October 2020 through February 2022, it held fewer than 80. Anxious investors sold in unglamorous areas, so Blasdell took larger stakes. But over the trailing year ended July 2025, the portfolio averaged 106 stocks. He thought the market was too optimistic, meaning prices weren’t as dependable.

From that angle, the portfolio’s sector shifts this past year might seem odd. From July 2024 to July 2025, Blasdell reduced the weight of traditional value areas like financials and real estate by 6 percentage points each. Meanwhile, he lifted the technology and communications stakes (where most of the Magnificent Seven dwell) by 7 and 4 percentage points, respectively. This could look like a shift toward growth, but it's not and is more complex.

The communications area illustrates how multiple considerations, not a single tilt, changed the portfolio. In June 2025, Alphabet and Meta Platforms joined the Russell 1000 Value Index, and the media analyst covering them thought their prices were reasonable long-term. Blasdell notes his purchases meant he was not especially bullish but didn’t want to bet against them given decent prices. He also built a top-20 position in Disney, arguing its valuation was cheap given improvements in streaming and its movie franchise. Finally, the portfolio owns both Verizon and Comcast, which Blasdell sees as internet providers, an essential service in 2025.

Lead manager Scott Blasdell’s extensive knowledge and strong use of a great analyst team drive an Above Average rating here.

Blasdell became lead manager at this strategy in April 2013, with strong returns since then. Before coming to J.P. Morgan, he worked on legendary value manager John Neff’s team at Wellington Management. He arrived at J.P. Morgan in 1999 as a research analyst covering REITs; after a successful stint as portfolio manager for REIT strategies from 2001 to 2008, he began managing diversified value portfolios such as this one.

Also dedicated to the strategy are portfolio manager John Piccard and analysts Jim Brown and Amod Gautam. These three specialize in covering the mid-cap portion of the Russell 1000 Value Index, which J.P. Morgan’s core research team doesn’t cover as thoroughly as large caps. Piccard, who became a named manager here in November 2023, covers industrials and technology. Brown researches basic materials, and Gautam specializes in consumer names.

Much of the research work, however, comes from J.P. Morgan’s strong, core analyst team. That crew boasts 20 professionals who have been in the industry an average of 23 years and with the firm for 13 years. They provide uniform, long-term, normalized cash flow estimates that allow this team to rank hundreds of stocks based on valuation within sectors. Blasdell trusts them for detailed insights on specific opportunities.

J.P. Morgan continues to build a track record of strong stewardship, supporting a Parent rating upgrade to High from Above Average.

With more than USD 4 trillion in assets under management (including USD 1.3 trillion in money market funds) and a broad reach, J.P. Morgan is among the largest active asset managers in the US, Europe, and Asia. Although some multi-asset offerings have struggled over the past five years, prompting new leadership to make changes to investment teams, its equity and fixed-income teams boast long-tenured portfolio managers who practice repeatable investment processes that have generally produced strong long-term results. Most of its funds are core building blocks with long lifetimes, though its lineup around the world also includes more-specialized options: Two options-based equity-income exchange-traded funds, launched in 2020 and 2022, are now among the firm’s largest. J.P. Morgan has been an early mover in offering active ETFs, having converted 12 of its open-end mutual funds to the structure and launching others. It isn’t always at the forefront of emerging trends. While it has filed registration statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an interval fund and an ETF investing in private markets, it hasn’t yet introduced such an option for all investors, whether on its own or in partnership with another asset manager, unlike some of its closest competitors.

To support the firm’s diverse investment offerings, J.P. Morgan has invested heavily in both portfolio management tools and its client organization. Over the past 10 years, the firm has developed robust proprietary technology with advanced analytics and broad buy-in from investment analysts, portfolio traders, and portfolio managers, all of whom have easy access to the platform. The firm also stands apart for its demonstrated commitment to clients. In the early 2000s, J.P. Morgan began pivoting its engagement with financial advisors to adopt a more consultative approach, supported by its sought-after Guide to the Markets research series that focuses on investor education, not product pitches. This perspective can help clients stay the course, supporting positive investor outcomes.

Incentives reinforce alignment with fundholders. Beginning more than 10 years ago, investment team compensation is tied to three-, five-, and 10-year performance, and portfolio managers must invest at least half of their deferred compensation in J.P. Morgan strategies. Many firms encourage portfolio managers to invest alongside fundholders, but J.P. Morgan goes a step further in requiring client-facing individuals to invest substantial portions of their incentive compensation in the funds.

Although some funds still face high cost hurdles, more than half of share classes charge competitive fees relative to peers.

This strategy’s returns under lead manager Scott Blasdell have been great.

The institutional share class advanced 11.9% annualized from April 2013 through August 2025, trouncing the 10.2% Russell 1000 Value Index’s gain and the typical large-value peer’s 9.9% return.

There are shortcomings, however. Owing to high volatility, its risk-adjusted return metrics such as Sharpe ratio are average. The strategy often trails in downturns; it plummeted 43% in the February to March 2020 pandemic panic, even more than the benchmark’s 38% slide. Those seeking a value strategy with a cautious eye for quality that creates capital preservation in downturns won’t enjoy this ride.

Instead, it would suit investors hoping to pair an aggressive growth strategy with a value approach that will boldly buy beaten-down fare when others run scared. Although not a deep value strategy, it tends to do especially well when cheap stocks surge. The last two extended times when US value fare topped growth, in late 2016 and from late 2020 through mid-2022, this fund’s institutional shares beat the typical peer by an average of 8.5 percentage points and the Russell 1000 Value by 9.8 percentage points on a cumulative basis.

The fund has had a subpar first nine months of 2025, with the most obvious problem being a small overweighting in UnitedHealth Group. But it’s become yet another year when growth equities are topping value stocks.

JPMorgan Large Cap Value I's Prospectus Adjusted Expense Ratio is 0.69% per year. It places it in the middle quintile of the Morningstar US Fund Large Value Category, where the median fee is 0.75% per year. This cost positioning translates into a Medalist Rating Price Score of 0.48, which reflects its relative price positioning within the category. The Price Score ranges from -2.50 (most expensive) to +2.50 (cheapest), with higher scores indicating better cost competitiveness.