JPMorgan International Equity 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. He became a comanager in 2004 and has been lead manager since September 2017. Murray is joined by comanagers Shane Duffy, James Sutton, and Zenah Shuhaiber, all of whom have been with JPMorgan for their entire investment careers. This is the same team that runs the ADR-only sibling offering JPMorgan International ADR, while Murray and Duffy co-lead the more concentrated, best-ideas offering, JPMorgan International Focus.
The managers make full use of JPMorgan's huge analytical resources to build a 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 70- to 100-stock portfolio. Management wants stock selection to drive returns, so it is cognizant to minimize unintended sector, country, and style-related bets relative to the MSCI EAFE prospectus benchmark. For example, while the managers are willing to pay up for some growth-oriented opportunities, valuation is an important consideration as well; this is 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.
The strategy has posted respectable returns during Murray’s leadership. Since September 2017 through February 2024, the mutual fund’s institutional shares gained 4.9% annualized, beating the MSCI ACWI ex USA category index’s 4.0% return and 66% of its foreign large-blend Morningstar Category peers. Risk-adjusted returns told a similar story.