JPMorgan International Focus is a standout non-US equity strategy because of its strong management team and robust investment approach.
This strategy is in the capable hands of Tom Murray and Shane Duffy. They boast a respective 27 and 24 years of experience—all with J.P. Morgan—and have co-led this offering since its 2011 inception. They work collaboratively and have complementary skill sets, with Murray having more of an energy and materials background, while Duffy previously covered consumer stocks. The managers also work together on the more diversified sibling offering JPMorgan International Equity, alongside teammates James Sutton and Zenah Shuhaiber, who have also been with the firm their entire careers.
The managers make full use of J.P. Morgan's huge analytical resources to build this best-ideas—but still well-balanced—portfolio. Supporting the managers are eight global sector specialists who scour the best ideas from the firm's regional research teams that cover about 2,500 stocks globally. The global specialists ultimately rank prospective stocks from A to C, with A representing their highest-conviction bets, a framework that helps form position-sizing decisions in the end 40- to 50-stock portfolio. The managers have wide flexibility at the sector and country levels, but they are cognizant of minimizing unintended sector, country, and style-related bets relative to the MSCI ACWI ex USA Index. For example, while they are willing to pay up for some growth-oriented opportunities, valuation is an important consideration as well, hence why the end portfolios tend to land in the core portion of the Morningstar Style Box. Overall, management has married the firm's in-house strengths with process traits to maximize the odds of success here, helping drive the Process rating to High from Above Average.
Murray and Duffy have produced compelling returns during their tenure here. Since the strategy’s November 2011 inception, through February 2024, the institutional share class gained 7.1% annualized, beating the index's 5.7% return and 82% of its foreign large-blend Morningstar Category peers. Returns here were also better than JPMorgan International Equity, whose institutional shares returned 6.3% during the same period.