American Funds Fundamental Investors® Class R-4 RFNEX

American Funds Fundamental Investors remains a solid offering, supported by the firm’s multimanager structure and a deep bench of experienced investors employing a broad approach.

After a late-2025, firmwide assessment, which resulted in several personnel changes across its fund lineup, including this strategy, it remains in capable hands. On Jan. 1, 2026, Julian Abdey stepped off the strategy, while Franco Tapia and Brant Thompson were disclosed as managers. Both bring meaningful portfolio management experience, and Tapia had already been contributing to the strategy in an undisclosed role for several years. The remaining management team, including Mark Casey, Brady Enright, Paul Benjamin, Mathews Cherian, Diana Wagner, Dimitrije Mitrinovic, and Irfan Furniturewala, is a seasoned crew. The combination of veteran investors and emerging talent supports continuity and succession planning.

Flexibility remains a key strength. Managers have broad latitude to invest across the large-cap universe and are willing to look meaningfully different from the S&P 500 benchmark. They can own high-growth companies, deep-value opportunities, and dividend-paying stocks alike. The ability to invest internationally is a notable differentiator. As of September 2026, roughly 19% of assets were invested abroad, placing the strategy among the most globally oriented funds in the large-blend Morningstar Category. While foreign stocks have been a headwind for much of the past decade, that exposure has recently aided results.

The multimanager structure has helped drive strong recent performance. Different managers have contributed through distinct investment ideas. For instance, Casey’s investment in bitcoin treasury company, Strategy, supported results in 2023 and 2024. As that tailwind cooled in 2025, Cherian’s positions in memory chip makers Micron Technology and SK Hynix helped power the strategy to top-decile category performance. The momentum carried into the 2026’s first three quarters as demand tied to artificial intelligence infrastructure continued to benefit semiconductor holdings.

The strategy’s recent success has strengthened its overall record. Through September 2026, it ranked in the large-blend category’s top decile over the trailing one-, three-, and five-year periods. Combined with its experienced team, strong research support, and flexible mandate, it remains a compelling option for long-term investors.

The strategy’s flexibility, breadth, and structure earn it an Above Average Process rating.

The strategy’s flexibility helps it stand out. It has historically made the strategy one of the firm’s more aggressive large-blend offerings, a characteristic reflected in its differentiated sector and geographic positioning. Unlike other firm large-blend strategies, it is not required to maintain a yield above that of the prospectus S&P 500 benchmark. Instead, management targets a preexpense portfolio yield of roughly 80% to 100% of the index, providing the flexibility to invest across a wide spectrum of opportunities, from high-growth companies and deep-value ideas to more stable dividend-paying stocks.

The strategy can also invest up to 35% of its assets abroad. The managers usually buy globally dominant companies that have few domestic equivalents. This tends to be the case in materials and natural-resources stocks, for example. They also often invest in international companies that have higher yields than their US counterparts.

Capital Group's multimanager approach lets the managers play to their strengths. With distinct styles, they can invest in their best ideas or hold cash to wait for compelling opportunities. Meanwhile, the combination of separately managed sleeves mutes the overall portfolio's volatility. The firm typically prefers that managers hold investments for the long term and incentivizes them appropriately, giving them the conviction to hold promising stocks that may take several years to work out.

The strategy’s flexibility results in a portfolio that looks meaningfully different from the typical large-blend category peer. Managers typically allocate more than 10% of assets to non-US stocks, and as of September 2026, the portfolio’s 19% foreign allocation ranked among the category’s top 5%. Notable foreign holdings included semiconductor leader TSMC, British American Tobacco, and South Korean memory chip manufacturer SK Hynix.

While the portfolio’s sector positioning relative to the S&P 500 is less extreme than in prior years, it still reflects the team’s highest-conviction views. As of September 2026, technology represented 35% of assets, roughly 5 percentage points below the benchmark. However, the managers maintained a significant preference for semiconductor stocks, overweighting the industry by approximately 4 percentage points. Five of the portfolio’s top 10 holdings were semiconductor companies, led by top holding Broadcom. Industrials represented the strategy’s largest sector overweighting at roughly 4 percentage points, while consumer staples was also modestly overweight, with tobacco companies contributing meaningfully to the allocation.

The resulting portfolio was broadly diversified, holding approximately 225 stocks. It has typically been less concentrated in its top 10 positions than the index and has maintained a modest growth tilt. Although the strategy has held meaningful cash balances at times, its cash allocation stood below 3% as of September 2026.

This strategy benefits from the strengths of Capital Group’s multimanager system, the managers' extensive industry experience, and their mutual fund ownership, supporting its Above Average People rating.

Following a firmwide self-assessment in late 2025, this strategy underwent several manager changes but remains in solid hands. On Jan. 1, 2026, Julian Abdey stepped off the strategy, while Franco Tapia and Brant Thompson were disclosed as managers. Both bring decent management experience. Thompson has managed another large-cap strategy for more than six years, while Tapia previously held management roles at Pzena Investment Management and BlackRock. Tapia has also been managing money in an undisclosed role on the strategy since February 2022, something the firm does regularly when adding new managers.

The remaining managers are seasoned investors. Since mid-2018, the strategy has been run by equity subsidiaries Capital International Investors and Capital World Investors. Brady Enright leads CWI’s team of Paul Benjamin, Mathews Cherian, and Diana Wagner. Meanwhile, Mark Casey heads up the whole fund and CII’s crew of Dimitrije Mitrinovic, Irfan Furniturewala, and newcomers Thompson and Tapia. The managers are supported by a deep research team of more than 100 analysts.

All nine managers invest more than USD 1 million in the fund.

Capital Group stands out from the pack as it enhances capabilities around strong core competencies. It earns a High Parent rating.

Since 1931, Capital Group, parent of American Funds, has thoughtfully built out capabilities to become one of the world’s largest asset managers, managing more than USD 3 trillion dollars. Building on the success of its long-term-oriented, multiple-manager system for global equities, the firm has developed robust fixed-income and multi-asset units, each managing more than USD 500 billion. In January 2026, as part of its periodic review of its now five distinct research organizations, Capital Group implemented changes to its equity investment subsidiaries. This exercise resulted in most equity strategies having at least one portfolio manager change, but according to the firm, it better balances each of Capital Group’s three equity groups in terms of investment breadth and helps the firm better align leadership opportunities across the groups. These kinds of shifts have occurred before, with the last coming in 2018.

Capital Group has also turned its attention to some modern opportunities. To address public/private market convergence trends, it launched in April 2025 two semiliquid funds with private market giant KKR. In keeping with its signature portfolio management approach, it splits those funds into multiple sleeves, which are managed independently by distinct managers at each firm. Capital Group plans to deepen this relationship with target-date and model portfolios, as well as public/private equity funds. On the other end of the spectrum, although the firm is firmly dedicated to active management, it has also acknowledged investor preference for passive investing and has thus partnered with indexing stalwarts Vanguard, BlackRock, and Schwab on active/passive models. Capital Group’s proven investment prowess, strong reputation among investors, and scale mean it can be selective with its partnerships.

In addressing another recent trend, since early 2022, the firm has launched more than 25 active exchange-traded funds globally, most of which are distinct, but several are similar to some of its legacy American Funds mutual funds. Unlike some of its peers, though, it has not filed for SEC exemptive relief to offer ETFs as a share class.

That’s a lot of change for such a storied and sizable firm, but Capital Group has a long history of serving investors well.

After a prolonged stretch of middling results, recent performance has been stellar. From the 2007 financial crisis through 2021, it struggled to gain ground with its prospectus S&P 500 benchmark. Performance improved in 2022, when the R6 shares outpaced the S&P 500 by 1.7 percentage points. The strategy posted competitive results in 2023 and 2024.

Results accelerated in 2025, when the strategy ranked in the large-blend category’s top decile and handily outperformed the index. Technology holdings were key contributors, led by positions in Micron Technology, Broadcom, and SK Hynix. Tobacco stocks, including Philip Morris and British American Tobacco, also added value. In addition, the portfolio’s exposure to foreign-domiciled stocks shifted from a headwind to a tailwind, providing a meaningful boost to returns.

That trend continued in 2026’s first three quarters as the strategy bested the index and landed in the top quintile of peers. That has helped strengthen results in recent years. As of September 2026, the fund landed in the category’s top decile across the trailing one-, three-, and five-year periods.

Longer term, the strategy remains competitive. Over the 20 years through September 2026, it bested the S&P 500 by 6 basis points annualized and handily surpassed the large-blend category average. The strategy also consistently beat the typical category peer in 98% of rolling five-year periods during that span.

American Funds Fundamental Invs R-4's Prospectus Adjusted Expense Ratio is 0.63% per year. It places it in the middle quintile of the Morningstar US Fund Large Blend Category, where the median fee is 0.66% per year. This cost positioning translates into a Medalist Rating Price Score of 0.19, 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.