JPMorgan US Sustainable Leaders C JICCX

Fees are a weakness here. The strategy's lofty fees are a high hurdle to clear, as it is priced within the most expensive quintile among peers.

The strategy’s management team earns an Average People Pillar rating. The strategy's effective investment approach earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating. High liquidity exposure is attributed to stocks with a high trading volume, lending managers more flexibility. And high volatility exposure is rooted in stocks that have a higher standard deviation of returns. The strategy's parent organization earns the firm an Above Average Parent Pillar rating. People Pillar and Parent Pillar ratings for this strategy are indirectly assigned by a Morningstar analyst rather than algorithmically derived. Please see the notes following each pillar section for more details. The details of assigning methods can be found in each pillar section.

JPMorgan U.S. Sustainable Leaders Fd earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating.

The most important driver of the rating is its parent firm's superior long-term risk-adjusted performance, as shown by the firm's average 10-year Morningstar Rating of 3.3 stars. Excellent risk-adjusted performance also bolsters the process. This can be seen in the fund's five-year alpha calculated relative to the category index, which suggests that the managers have shown skill in their allocation of risk. 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 tends to pick smaller market-cap companies compared with the average fund in its peer group, the Large Blend Morningstar Category. But in terms of investment style, it is on par with peers. Examining additional factor exposure, this strategy has consistently tilted toward companies with relatively higher trading volumes in the last few years. This gives the managers more flexibility during bear markets to sell without adversely affecting prices. In recent months, the strategy was more exposed to the Liquidity factor compared with its Morningstar Category peers as well. This strategy has also exhibited a tilt toward high-volatility stocks over these years, meaning it has invested in companies that have a higher historical standard deviation of returns. Such stocks tend to rise faster and fall harder than the broad market. High-volatility exposure contributes to stronger performance during bull markets, but often at the cost of losing more during downturns. Compared with category peers, the strategy also had more exposure to the Volatility factor in the most recent month. In addition, the strategy had less exposure to high-yield stocks compared with Morningstar Category peers in recent months. Its preference for stocks with lower yields may well lead to a growthier portfolio. However, growth stocks court additional risks if their forecasts do not come to fruition and are often more volatile than companies with stable dividends. 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 has allocations in its top two sectors, technology and healthcare, that are similar to the category. The sectors with low exposure compared to category peers are consumer defensive and energy, with consumer defensive underweighting the average portfolio by 2.8 percentage points of assets and energy similar to the average. The strategy owns 77 securities and is diversified among those holdings. In its most recent portfolio, 40.6% of the fund’s assets were concentrated in the top 10 fund holdings, as opposed to the category’s 50.1% average. And in closing, in terms of portfolio turnover, this portfolio trades more frequently than the average peer in its category, which may result in higher trading costs for investors and cause a drag on performance.

Andrew Stern brings six years of listed portfolio management experience to the team. Andrew Stern draws on only two other listed supporting managers. Although, together they are adequately equipped, with eight years of average listed portfolio management experience. The management team is invested in the fund, but the maximum investment by any manager is between$ 100,000 and$ 500,000. An investment of more than$ 1 million would be ideal to align managers' interests with those of the fund's investors.

Note: The People Pillar rating is indirectly assigned by an analyst. The longest-tenured manager of the fund also manages a different product rated by an analyst. Their analyst-assigned People Pillar rating is combined here with the People scores (algorithmic or analyst-assigned) for the fund’s other managers on a tenure-weighted basis.

As of 2022, this investment stalwart manages more than USD 2.5 trillion in AUM. Composed of various global cohorts and diverse asset classes, the firm has more tightly integrated its capabilities in recent years, notably through the development of proprietary analytical and risk systems. Investment teams are robustly staffed and helmed by seasoned contributors. The firm’s strategies tend to produce reliable portfolios, and several flagship offerings are Morningstar Medalists. Manager incentives align with fundholders'; compensation reflects longer-term performance factors, and portfolio managers invest in the firm’s strategies as part of their compensation plans.

The firm’s funds tend to be well-priced, but they aren’t as competitive as many highly regarded peers of similar scale. Recent product launches include thematic and single-country strategies, both of which carry the potential for volatile performance and flows, along with misuse by investors. The firm remains intrepid when it comes to developing an environmental, social, and governance-focused framework and continues to move into other areas such as direct indexing through its 55iP acquisition and China through its joint venture, but these complicated initiatives take time to assess any real and lasting effect.

It has provided better returns compared with peers, but subpar returns compared with the category benchmark. This share class outpaced its average peer by 92 basis points annualized over a 10-year period. However, it was more difficult to outpace the category index, Russell 1000 Index, where it trailed by an annualized 1.1 percentage points over the same period.

When adjusting for risk, this fund is not compelling. The share class trailed the index with a lower Sharpe ratio, a measure of risk-adjusted returns, over the trailing 10-year period. But notably, these subpar risk-adjusted results have not come with more volatility than the benchmark, as measured by standard deviation. Finally, the share class proved itself ineffective as it was unable to generate alpha, over the same 10-year period, against the category group index: a benchmark that encapsulates the performance of the broader asset class.

This share class sits in the costliest quintile of its Morningstar Category. Its steep fee, in conjunction with the fund’s People, Process, and Parent Pillars, suggests that this share class could struggle to deliver positive alpha compared with its category benchmark, explaining its Morningstar Medalist Rating of Neutral.