JPMorgan Large Cap Growth Fund Class R6 JLGMX

JPMorgan Large Cap Growth (including the non-US domiciled vehicles) benefits from a veteran leader and a solid supporting cast who leverage thorough fundamental research. It earns a People rating upgrade to High from Above Average.

A seasoned large-growth investor leads the way here. Lead manager Giri Devulapally has more than 21 years of experience managing this strategy, which ranks just outside the top decile of large-growth Morningstar Category peers. He is supported by five experienced sector analysts, four of whom are also comanagers—recognizing their contributions and laying groundwork for future succession. Comanagers Larry Lee, Holly Morris, Joseph Wilson, and Robert Maloney each boast more than 20 years of experience, including at least a decade at J.P. Morgan, and demonstrate deep knowledge of the portfolio’s holdings.

The team’s approach couples robust fundamental research with a thoughtful momentum component to find long-term winners while limiting downside risk. Through deep company analysis, the team has identified some of the market’s biggest winners early, and it has held on for the ride while managing position sizes effectively using momentum-driven trading. Devulapally has skillfully built and trimmed positions over the years, focusing on companies with competitive advantages, durable growth, and margin-expansion prospects. He typically leans into positioning once the market recognizes a catalyst the team has already identified, leveraging the market’s confirmation to support a longer-term investment while reducing the chances of getting in too early. The team isn’t beholden to this, though, and will add to positions during dips, as it did in early 2025, when some high-flying tech names pulled back. The team’s track record is impressive: Nvidia (added in 2016), Tesla (2013), Amazon.com (2007), Meta Platforms (2013), and Apple (2005) stand out as notable long-term winners it identified early and held for years.

Devulapally boasts some of the best results in the category during his tenure. Since he took over as leader in mid-2005 through November 2025, the R6 shares’ 14% annualized return outpaced both the Russell 1000 Growth Index’s 13.4% and the typical large-growth peer’s 10.8%. Sector positioning has weighed on relative results so far in 2025, but over longer periods, Devulapally has delivered. The strategy’s results have landed in the category’s top decile in the trailing 10-, 15-, and 20-year periods through November.

Strong fundamental research and a thoughtful approach with apt use of momentum warrant an Above Average Process rating.

Lead manager Giri Devulapally aims to find big, long-term winners while limiting downside risk. He and his team focus on companies with durable competitive advantages, clear opportunities for margin expansion, and sizable addressable markets.

Devulapally recognizes that promising growth stocks often carry hefty price tags, so he tracks each holding’s valuation and trims positions when they appear overextended relative to history. To limit risk, he typically initiates positions at small weightings and adds to them as the market begins to recognize the catalysts his team has identified. He also shifts allocations toward sectors showing strong price momentum, viewing these runs as the market’s sign of further upside. Despite the portfolio’s momentum tilt, annual portfolio turnover remains moderate, reflecting a measured approach rather than heavy trading.

Still, he’s not a strict momentum player. If a stock’s price dips but the investment thesis remains sound, he may add to it. However, if momentum fades alongside a weakening thesis, he won’t hesitate to reduce or exit the position.

In early 2025, the firm transitioned the US mutual fund to nondiversified status, allowing the team more flexibility in position sizing. The non-US-domiciled vehicles still follow local diversification rules, which could lead to larger portfolio differences moving forward.

The team’s focus on positive price momentum can lead to significant shifts in both sector allocations and the portfolio’s stylistic traits. During the past 10 years, as technology has steadily grown in the Russell 1000 Growth Index, the strategy’s tech allocation has gone from a large overweighting to a large underweighting and then was more in line with the index by early 2024. In late 2024, it was back to more than a 10-percentage-point underweighting, but as tech sold off in early 2025, the team started buying it back; as of September, it cut the underweighting in half to roughly 5 percentage points.

Valuation metrics can swing as well. For most of manager Giri Devulapally’s 20-year tenure, the strategy carried higher price multiples than the index and large-growth category peers. In 2021 and 2022, however, the portfolio adopted a more defensive stance, reflecting a momentum-aware approach when many high-growth names began to slide. As of November 2025, its price multiples, such as price/earnings, were slightly above both the index and typical peer.

Devulapally lets winners run, often adding to positions after the market takes notice. During the 2023 market rally, he boosted Nvidia to 5% from 1% of assets and Meta to 5% from near zero. By September 2025, Nvidia had grown to 12.3% of assets, slightly below its weighting in the Russell 1000 Growth Index.

Increased conviction in leadership and its experienced and stable supporting cast earn a People rating upgrade to High from Above Average.

Lead manager Giri Devulapally sets a strong foundation for this strategy. He began his career as a tech and communications analyst at T. Rowe Price before joining J.P. Morgan in 2003. His background suits this tech-heavy portfolio, and he has focused solely on this strategy since becoming its leader in mid-2005. Devulapally is supported by four comanagers—Larry Lee, Joseph Wilson, Holly Fleiss, and Robert Maloney—who were promoted to comanager between 2020 and 2022. This helps to address key-person risk, as Devulapally had managed the sizable strategy alone since 2014, but he’s still firmly in charge. Collectively, the comanagers average over 20 years in the industry and 13 years at J.P. Morgan. Each is well-versed in the team’s investment philosophy and brings extensive backgrounds in their respective sectors.

Under Devulapally’s leadership, this strategy has delivered topnotch returns in the large-growth space, and his capable supporting cast bolsters our confidence in the team’s long-term prospects. Although turnover within the team is rare, it replaced a departing consumer analyst in 2022 with the seasoned Janet King, a 20-year veteran. King has quickly become an asset, contributing to timely decisions on positions such as Amazon.com.

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.

Manager Giri Devulapally has delivered strong results in the competitive large-cap growth category.

Under his watch from July 2005 through November 2025, the strategy’s R6 shares rose 14.0% annualized, topping the Russell 1000 Growth Index’s 13.4% and handily beating the typical large-growth peer’s 10.8%. More impressively relative to large-growth peers, it has thrived during market rallies while limiting damage in downturns, capturing 106% of monthly gains and only 95% of monthly losses. Its consistent record is equally notable: Across all rolling five-year periods under Devulapally, the strategy outperformed the typical peer 94% of the time and beat the index 77% of the time.

Still, the momentum tilt can produce sizable performance swings. In 2023, for example, the strategy’s 34.3% gain lagged the Russell 1000 Growth Index’s 42.7% and trailed the category average of 35.8%. On the flip side, momentum proved helpful in 2024, as solid picks in communication services and healthcare drove the strategy’s 34.1% gain, beating the index’s 32.2% and the peer group average of 29.4%. The strategy has lagged the index so far in 2025 through November, as its overweighting in healthcare and underweighting in technology weighed on relative results.

JPMorgan Large Cap Growth R6's Prospectus Adjusted Expense Ratio is 0.44% per year. It places it in the cheapest quintile of the Morningstar US Fund Large Growth Category, where the median fee is 0.82% per year. This cost positioning translates into a Medalist Rating Price Score of 1.96, 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.