Industry Highlights and Trends

wall-st-traffic.jpg
Wall street and red traffic light

 

Our roundup of notable news:

  • Van Eck Sponsors $3M Student Fund and Scholarship

USC Marshall School of Business was presented with a $3 million donation from Van Eck Global for a new student investment fund and educational travel scholarship. The gift will support the Van Eck Global Student Allocation Fund, which will explore asset allocation methods, and go toward creating the Van Eck Global Scholarship Program, which will help student investors travel to New York and elsewhere to present their fund portfolio results. "I'm thrilled for the students' expanded learning opportunities in ETF asset allocation across a wide range of asset classes," said Suh-Pyng Ku, professor of clinical finance and business economics and director of Center for Investment Studies which will administer the fund and scholarship.

  • IndexIQ Liquid Alt ETF Tops $1 Billion

The flagship liquid alt fund offered by IndexIQ, the IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Tracker ETF, passed the $1 billion assets mark, the company announced. IndexIQ added that the five-year-old fund, known as QAI, is the largest in its category. "This is a significant milestone for QAI, and a testament to the increased recognition of the role liquid alternatives can play in an investor's portfolio," said Adam Patti, chief executive officer at IndexIQ, in a statement. The fund grew assets by 57% last year, the company added.

  • State Street Survey: Hedge Funds Optimistic

A State Street survey of 235 hedge fund professionals reported that just over half expected pension funds to increase their exposure to hedge fund strategies over the next five years. Additionally, 63 % expected institutional investors increasing their exposure to hedge funds in the next five years.

  • Morningstar Names Fund Managers of the Year

Primecap, Dodge & Cox, Western Asset and Boston Partners are the latest winners of the Morningstar U.S. Fund Manager of the Year awards.
Using its own ranking system, the research firm recognized managers it considers leaders in domestic and international stocks, fixed income, alternatives and allocations. Morningstar honored managers for impressive performance, along with excellent long-term and risk-adjusted returns, and for being good stewards of fund shareholders' capital.

Theo Kolokotrones, Joel Fried, Al Mordecai, Mohsin Ansari and James Marchetti received the Domestic-Stock Fund Manager of the Year award for the following funds: Primecap Odyssey Aggressive Growth; Primecap Odyssey Growth; Primecap Odyssey Stock; Vanguard Capital Opportunity; Vanguard Primecap Core and Vanguard Primecap.

All six funds received a Morningstar analyst rating of gold, the company's highest medal rating, for generating returns greater than 13.5% and ranking in the 11th percentile or better in their respective categories.

Three of the managers have over $1 million invested in each of the six funds and two have between $100,000 and $500,000 invested. The company also received the award in 2003 for Vanguard Primecap and Vanguard Capital Opportunity.

Charles Pohl and Diana Strandberg and the Dodge & Cox International Stock Policy Committee received the International-Stock Fund Manager of the Year award for Dodge & Cox International Stock. The fund was recognized as a patient value strategy with low turnover.

Also with a gold analyst rating from Morningstar, the team was honored for putting up double-digit gains from long-time pharmaceutical holdings Novartis and Roche, and holding out on Hewlett-Packard stock, which also rose significantly this year.

The Fixed-Income Fund Manager of the Year award went to Ken Leech, Carl Eichstaedt and Mark Lindbloom for Western Asset Core Bond and Western Asset Core Plus Bond. The two silver-rated funds also landed in the top decile of the Morningstar intermediate-term bond category, after posting significant losses in 2008.

Both funds gained more than 7.4% in 2014 beating out other contestants in the category. They were also acknowledged for their long-term interest rates and security selection in the non-agency mortgage and investment-grade credit sectors.

Robert T. Jones and Ali Motamed received the Alternatives Fund Manager of the Year award for Boston Partners Long/Short Equity. Given their low average net exposure of 34% and weekly beta for the year of only 0.12%, the fund surprisingly saw a 4.7% return in 2014.

The Allocation Fund Manager of the Year award winner was Anne Lester and her team for the J.P. Morgan SmartRetirement target-date series. Each fund in the series returned more than 5% and with three-year annualized returns between 7% and 17%. Lester has led the J.P. Morgan SmartRetirement team since the series' inception in 2006.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Fund performance Mutual funds Money Management Executive
MORE FROM FINANCIAL PLANNING