It has been a volatile ride for US equity investors over the past few years, with the stock market swinging from double digit returns to double digit losses.
At the end of 2021, the S&P 500 index was up 28.71%, but it finished the following year down 18.11% in 2022.
This year, it is back on track to deliver another year of double-digit returns, up 21.81% year-to-date.
Some former top-performing US funds which were caught on the wrong side of the market in 2021 and 2022, with two consecutive years of lagging their peers, have since made a comeback in 2023.
FSA highlights five US equity funds available for distribution in Hong Kong and Singapore that have managed to outperform year-to-date, after enduring two consecutive years (2021 and 2022) of bottom-quartile performance, based on data from FE fundinfo*.
Below are the five funds ranked by year-to-date returns, all of which happen to be large cap growth style strategies.
PGIM Jennison US Growth
This $6.17bn fund is managed by Blair Boyer, Michael Del Balso, Natasha Kuhlkin and Kathleen Mccarragher. The strategy is up 47.72% year-to-date, after a 40.37% loss in 2022 and a 14.21% gain in 2021.
It has 54 holdings, and its largest positions are in Microsoft, Amazon and Nvidia, which make up 8.3%, 7.8% and 7.7% respectively.
BlackRock GF US Growth
This $415m fund is managed by Phil Ruvinsky and Caroline Bottinelli. It is up 45.45% year-to-date, after a 40.57% loss in 2022 and a 17.65% gain in 2021.
It has 38 holdings in the portfolio, and its largest positions are in Microsoft, Amazon and Apple at 8.67%, 8.33% and 7.84% respectively.
T. Rowe Price US Blue Chip Equity
This $644m fund is managed by Paul Greene. It is up 43.99% year-to-date, after a 39.67% loss in 2022 and a 17.44% gain in 2021.
With 79 holdings, its largest positions are heavily weighted towards the large cap ‘blue chips’, including Microsoft, Apple and Amazon at 9.87%, 9.75% and 9% respectively.
Natixis Loomis Sayles US Growth Equity
This $2.9bn fund is managed by Aziz Hamzaogullari. It is up 43.31% year-to-date, after a 28.72% loss in 2022, and 17.18% gain in 2021.
It has just 36 holdings in the portfolio, with its largest positions in Meta Platforms, Nvidia and Alphabet, at 7.4%, 7.3% and 6.1% respectively.
Sands Capital US Select Growth Fund
This $12.1bn fund is managed by Frank Sands, Wesley Johnston and Thomas Trentman. It is up 41.59% year-to-date, after a 49.62% loss in 2022 and a 4.2% gain in 2021.
This was the most concentrated portfolio in the list, with just 27 holdings. Its largest holdings are in Microsoft, ServiceNow and Amazon, at 9.4%, 7.8% and 7.6% respectively.
*The top-performing funds were measured in US dollar terms. The year-to-date performance is based on data from FE fundinfo ending 08/12/2023. The data only includes fund vehicles that fall under the Hong Kong SFC Authorised Mutual or Singapore Mutual equity international sectors in the FE analytics platform. The performance ranking was based on the fund’s Singapore or Hong Kong sector peer group.
