Morningstar says it has raised its ratings on eight funds, downgraded ratings for seven funds and affirmed ratings for 95 funds and two target-date series in August.

The Chicago-based research group also gave new ratings to 48 funds. 

It also affirmed ratings on 95 funds, as well as two target-date series.

The Morningstar Analyst Ratings represent analysts' views that a fund can outperform its peers on a risk-adjusted basis over the long term. The five-tiered, qualitative scale has three positive levels — Gold, Silver and Bronze — as well as neutral and negative ratings.

As of Aug. 31, 138 U.S. funds have a Gold rating, 334 have a Silver rating, and 546 funds have a Bronze rating.

A large number of funds, 603, are rated Neutral, with only 11 receiving a Negative rating.

Funds with a Medalist rating now represent about 6% of unique mutual funds available for sale in the United States, but 59% of assets under management, as tracked by the research group. Its analysts rate some $10.5 trillion of U.S. investor assets overall, or roughly 67% of total investor assets.

Read on for more details on Morningstar's August 2017 updates.

Upgrades

  • Artisan High Income (Bronze from Neutral)
  • Eaton Vance Multi-Sector Income (Neutral from Negative)
  • iShares S&P 500 Index (Bronze from Neutral)
  • John Hancock Funds International Growth (Bronze from Neutral)
  • Lazard Global Listed Infrastructure (Silver from Bronze)
  • PIMCO Mortgage Opportunities (Silver from Bronze)
  • T. Rowe Price International Stock (Bronze from Neutral)
  • Thornburg Limited Term Income (Bronze from Neutral)

 

Downgrades

  • Driehaus Active Income (Neutral from Bronze)
  • Fidelity Small Cap Stock (Neutral from Bronze)
  • Neuberger Berman Mid-Cap Growth (Neutral from Bronze)
  • Browne Value (Bronze from Silver)
  • Tweedy, Browne Global Value (Bronze from Silver)
  • Tweedy, Browne Worldwide High Dividend Yield Value (Bronze from Silver)
  • Vanguard Windsor II (Neutral from Bronze)

 

Funds with new Morningstar ratings, include these Silver-rated funds:

  • Fidelity Advisor Health Care
  • Fidelity Select Health Care
  • John Hancock Funds Disciplined Value Mid Cap
  • SPDR Bloomberg Barclays Intermediate Term Corporate Bond ETF
  • Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index
  • Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond Index
  • Vanguard Long-Term Bond Index
  • Vanguard Short-Term Bond Index
  • Vanguard Total Bond Market II Index
  • Voya Intermediate Bond

 

Funds with affirmed Morningstar ratings, include these Gold-rated funds:

  • American Funds American Mutual
  • American Funds New Economy
  • DFA US Large Company
  • Fidelity 500 Index
  • Fidelity Four-in-One Index
  • Fidelity Total Market Index
  • iShares Core S&P 500 ETF
  • iShares Core S&P Total US Stock Market ETF
  • Primecap Odyssey Aggressive Growth
  • Primecap Odyssey Growth
  • Primecap Odyssey Stock
  • Schwab Total Stock Market Index
  • Schwab US Broad Market ETF
  • Schwab US Large-Cap ETF
  • Schwab S&P 500 Index
  • Vanguard Capital Opportunity
  • Vanguard Large-Cap ETF
  • Vanguard Primecap Core
  • Vanguard Primecap
  • Vanguard Tax-Managed Balanced
  • Vanguard Tax-Managed Small Cap 

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