Morningstar’s Fund Winners and Losers for November

New ratings for seven U.S. funds and six target-date series marked Morningstar’s November actions, as well as five fund upgrades and three downgrades.

It also published rating activity for 169 U.S. open-end mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and eight target-date series. Analysts upgraded ratings for five funds, downgraded ratings for three funds, affirmed ratings for 148 funds and two target-date series, and placed six funds under review.

“Last month we lowered Oakmark Select’s Morningstar Analyst Rating from Gold to Silver following its stumbles in energy and other errors of omission. This strategy depends on standout stock-picking to succeed, and execution has not been consistent enough to merit the highest Morningstar Medalist rating,” Laura Pavlenko Lutton, Morningstar’s director of manager research for North America, said in a statement.

Lutton added, “On the flip side, the rating for Schwab US TIPS ETF was raised to Gold from Silver because of its sizeable fee advantage in a category that’s been tough for active management. This low-cost ETF has an effective process that protects against inflation by accurately representing the Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, or TIPS, market, mitigates transaction costs, and avoids key person risk.”

(Related: Morningstar’s October Winners & Losers)

As of Nov. 30, 2018, 159 unique U.S. funds were rated Gold; 384 funds were rated Silver, 608 Bronze, 742 Neutral and 36 Negative. At present, Morningstar Medalists account for approximately 5% of unique mutual funds available for sale in the U.S. and 61% of assets under management.

Morningstar’s manager research analysts rate approximately $11.9 trillion of U.S. investor assets, or approximately 69% of total investor assets in the United States.

The following Morningstar Analyst Rating changes occurred in November 2018:

Upgrades

• Davis Financial (Bronze to Silver)
• DWS RREEF Real Estate Securities (Neutral to Bronze)
• JHancock Financial Industries (Neutral to Bronze)
• PIMCO 1-5 Year US TIPS ETF (Bronze to Silver)
• Schwab US TIPS ETF (Silver to Gold)

Downgrades

• American Beacon Bridgeway Large Cap Value (Bronze to Neutral)
• Oakmark Select Investor (Gold to Silver)
• Rowe Price Tax-Free Short-Intermediate (Gold to Silver)

New Ratings

• Blackrock Lifepath Smart Beta Target-Date Series (None to Bronze)
• Boston Partners Small Cap Value II (None to Silver)
• ClearTrack Target-Date Series (None to Negative)
• Fidelity Small Cap Growth (None to Bronze)
• JHancock Multi-Index Lifetime Target-Date Series (None to Neutral)
• JPMorgan Mortgage-Backed Securities (None to Silver)
• MassMutual RetireSMART Target-Date Series (None to Neutral)
• Nationwide Geneva Mid Cap Growth (None to Neutral)
• Natixis Sustainable Future Target-Date Series (None to Negative)
• Nuveen NWQ Small/Mid-Cap Value (None to Neutral)
• State Street Target Retirement Target-Date Series (None to Silver)
• Voya Russell Mid Cap Growth Index Port (None to Bronze)
• Voya US Stock Index Port (None to Bronze)

Under Review

• American Funds Limited-Term Tax-Exempt Bond (Bronze to Under Review)
• AQR Risk Parity (Neutral to Under Review)
• Fidelity Advisor Industrials (Bronze to Under Review)
• Fidelity Select Industrials (Bronze to Under Review)
• JHancock Global Absolute Return Strategies (Bronze to Under Review)
• Touchstone Flexible Income (Neutral to Under Review)

(Related: Morningstar’s October Winners & Losers)