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 investment approach stands out and earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating. Independent of the rating, analysis of the strategy's portfolio shows it has maintained an overweight liquidity exposure and volatility exposure compared with category peers. 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 significant contributor to the rating is the parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 57%. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and beat their respective category's median Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return for the period. The parent firm's impressive risk-adjusted performance, as shown by its average 10-year Morningstar Rating of 3.3 stars, also influences the rating. 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 targets smaller plays than its peers’ average in the Large Blend Morningstar Category. But in terms of style (value/growth) exposure, it does not have much of a bias and resembles the category's typical portfolio. Looking at additional factor exposure, the fund has held stocks with higher trading volumes compared to Morningstar Category Peers in the past few years. More-liquid assets contribute to more-flexible exit strategies without price changes and tend to be a ballast during market selloffs. For example, if the portfolio faces successive redemptions in a short period of time, it will be less likely to suffer from a significant loss. In recent months, the strategy was more exposed to the Liquidity factor compared with its Morningstar Category peers as well. This strategy also has had an overweight bias to the volatility factor over these years, meaning it has owned companies that have a higher historical standard deviation of returns. This orientation tends to pay off most prominently when markets are hot. Compared with category peers, the strategy also had more exposure to the Volatility factor in the most recent month. Additionally, the strategy had similar exposure to high-quality stocks compared with Morningstar Category peers in recent months. 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 is overweight in technology by 2.8 percentage points in terms of assets compared with the category average, and its financial services allocation is 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 76 securities and its assets are more dispersed than peers in the category. In particular, 39.2% of the fund’s assets are concentrated in the top 10 fund holdings, compared to the category’s 48.8% average. And finally, in terms of portfolio turnover, this fund trades more frequently than its average peer, potentially racking up additional expenses for investors and creating a drag on performance.

The strategy is backed by Andrew Stern, the longest-tenured manager, who has been a listed portfolio manager for five years. The average Morningstar Rating of the strategies they currently manage is 3.1 stars, indicating that their risk-adjusted returns have been in line with the category average. 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 highest personal investment in the fund by any of its managers is between$ 100,000 and$ 500,000. That's on the low side--it would need to be more than$ 1 million for us to see the investment as sufficient to promote the strong alignment of their interests with the strategy'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. Over a 10-year period, this share class outperformed the category’s average return by 81 basis points annualized. However, it was more difficult to outpace the category index, Russell 1000 Index, where it trailed by an annualized 1.2 percentage points over the same period.

When adjusting for risk, this fund is not compelling. The share class failed to beat 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 is in the costliest quintile of its Morningstar Category. Its unattractive 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, leading to its Morningstar Medalist Rating of Neutral.