News
T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (NASDAQ-GS: TROW), a global investment management organization and a market leader in target date investing, today announced that its Retirement Funds target date series has been awarded a Morningstar Gold Analyst Rating upgrade.
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The Morningstar report cites several factors in its upgrade of the Retirement Series including one of the industry s best-resourced multi-asset teams, led by target date head and 20-year T. Rowe Price veteran Wyatt Lee; an extensive research capability underpinning the series; and an exemplary lineup of underlying managers with strong track records.
Among fund managers with target date products that invest primarily in actively managed underlying funds, T. Rowe Price is the only one with products holding a Gold analyst rating from Morningstar, the highest rating offered.
An abrupt mass resignation of Royce Opportunity s (ROFIX) management team has left the strong-performing fund in the lurch and its Morningstar Analyst Rating under review.
Bill Hench and his three-person team surprised their colleagues at Royce Investment Partners by resigning on April 20, 2021. Hench had served as lead manager since October 2018 and as an assistant or comanager since May 2004, building an excellent track record, first as an understudy and then as successor to Boniface Buzz Zaino.
Robert Kosowsky and Suzanne Franks, Hench s assistant managers since 2018, and Adam Mielnik, an analyst for the strategy since 2014, also left. They did not disclose where they were headed but often when entire fund management teams leave at once it is for another firm or to strike out on their own. On April 21, noted value shop First Eagle Investment Management announced that it hired Hench and his team to run a new small-cap strategy for the firm.
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After a long, dark, cold winter, green shoots have emerged across the landscape of systematic value strategies those that buy stocks that are cheap relative to some fundamental measure of their worth. Exactly what has plagued these approaches for so long has been widely debated. And while the recent thaw has been welcomed by many long-suffering value disciples, even some of the factor’s biggest fans worry that it may be a false spring.
Here, I’ll look back at value’s cold streak, survey some of its potential causes, touch on the catalysts behind its turnaround, and explore whether there’s any value left in value today.
The current market environment is a challenge. With the Consumer Price Index registering increasingly higher values, supply-chain challenges mounting, and fiscal and monetary stimulus continuing unabated, it s reasonable for vigilant investors to wonder what will come next. It behooves those with a long investment horizon to curate portfolios that can withstand periods of inflationary pressures while remaining mindful that additions to a portfolio should improve its overall risk/return profile. What are the options?
Commodities, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, and equities like REITs or energy producers may provide some benefit against inflation, and in the past we ve explored how those assets have improved investors portfolios. However, it can be a challenge to select a single inflation-sensitive exposure from myriad menu options, let alone to conduct the due diligence needed to formulate a complementary combination of them.
The article was published in the March 2021 issue of Morningstar FundInvestor. Download a complimentary copy of FundInvestor by visiting the website.
In January, T. Rowe Price announced that manager Larry Puglia will retire from T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth (TRBCX) after a great run dating to 1993. After the announcement, we maintained our Above Average People and Process ratings and a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Silver.
No, we weren’t downplaying Puglia’s role or skill. Rather, we saw this coming and were comfortable with the situation. T. Rowe Price generally maps out manager transitions over a two-year period, so the new manager has time to get up to speed and investors have time to research the change.