How this small-cap stock picker's 'ownership' -2-

For peer comparisons, LSEG calculates one-year total returns and average annual total returns for three-, five- and 10-year periods through the most recent month-end. The data provider lists 107 funds as peers to the Diamond Hill Small Cap Fund that are also benchmarked to the Russell 2000.

Since Monroe took over as the fund's portfolio manager late in 2019, we have sorted the list of peers by five-year average annual returns.

The Diamond Hill Small Cap Fund's investor share class has annual expenses totaling 1.29% of assets under management, which makes for $129 in annual fees for a $10,000 investment.

The following performance comparison begins with the Diamond Hill Small Cap Fund, then the iShares Russell 2000 exchange-traded fund IWM, which is designed to track the performance of the Russell 2000 and currently holds 1,979 stocks within an $83 billion portfolio. Then there are the five peer funds with the highest five-year annual returns, among those available currently for direct purchase by new investors. All returns are through June 30 and are net of expenses and net of any sales charges. The funds' net expense ratios are in the right-most column.

 
Fund                                                    1-year return  Avg. 3-year return  Avg. 5-year return  Avg. 10-year return  Net expense ratio 
Diamond Hill Small Cap Fund; Investor                           44.6%               20.6%               13.0%                10.9%              1.29% 
iShares Russell 2000 ETF                                        40.6%               18.4%                6.9%                11.5%              0.19% 
Hennessy Cornerstone Growth Fund; Investor                      18.3%               20.9%               12.7%                12.5%              1.32% 
Allspring Disciplined Small Cap Fund; Institutional             48.7%               22.8%               12.2%                12.1%              0.60% 
AQR Small Cap Multi-Style Fund; Class I                         45.0%               23.6%               12.0%                13.1%              0.94% 
Zacks Small-Cap Core Fund; Investor                             47.1%               18.4%               11.8%                11.9%              1.40% 
Schwab Small-Cap Equity Fund                                    48.9%               20.7%               11.6%                12.4%              1.08% 
                                                                                                                                         Source: LSEG 

The Allspring Disciplined Small Cap Fund's institutional shares WSCOX have gross expenses of 0.96% of assets under management annually, but there is a temporary waiver of some expenses, so the net expense ratio will be 0.60% at least through the end of July.

The Zacks Small-cap Core Fund's Investor shares ZSCCX have a net expense ratio of 1.40%, but the gross expense ratio is 1.76%. The temporary waiver of some of this fund's expenses will stay in place until at least April 1, 2027.

Before investing in any mutual fund, be sure to do your own research to learn about any additional expenses, such as sales charges or redemption fees.

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07-15-26 1023ET