ESG rises to the top of Lipper Awards
Calvert and American Century bring home overall fund company awards, and a record 21 funds sweep their categories.
Past performance might not necessarily be indicative of future returns, but apparently it is indicative of an expanding validation of ESG investing.
For the second year in a row, Calvert Research and Management, a $32 billion fund shop built on a foundation of sustainable investing strategies, is the overall winner in the small company category of the Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards.
The annual awards, which are based on risk-adjusted performance over the past three-, five- and 10-year periods, sets the breakpoint between small and large companies at $99.4 billion under management.
Award | Firm Size | Management Company Name |
---|---|---|
Overall | Large Company | American Century Investment Management Inc. |
Overall | Small Company | Calvert Research and Management |
Equity | Large Company | American Century Investment Management Inc. |
Equity | Small Company | Paradigm Capital Management Inc. |
Fixed Income | Large Company | Vanguard Group Inc. |
Fixed Income | Small Company | Carillon Tower Advisers Inc. |
Mixed Assets | Large Company | State Street Bank and Trust Company |
Mixed Assets | Small Company | Manning & Napier Advisors LLC |
*Large and Small Breakpoint set at $99.4 billion AUM |
American Century Investment Management was both the overall large company winner, and the winner in the large company equity category.
The small company equity winner was Paradigm Capital Management.
On the fixed income side, Vanguard Group was the large company winner, and Carillon Tower Advisers was the small company winner.
In the mixed asset category, State Street Bank and Trust Co. was the large company winner, and Manning and Napier Advisors was the small company winner.
[Gallery: View top Lipper Fund Awards winners here]
While the world of investing strategies encompassing environmental, social and governance issues is quickly spreading across the general financial services landscape, it is noteworthy that a company like Calvert and a dedicated strategy like the $6.7 billion Pioneer Fund (PYODX) rise to the top as Lipper Award winners this year.
The Pioneer Fund, which is part of Amundi US, the world’s ninth-largest asset manager, was launched in 1928 and has long applied sustainable investing principles, according to portfolio manager Jeff Kripke.
“In 1940s the fund’s biggest client wanted to be socially responsible, so the portfolio excluded things like alcohol, gaming, tobacco and other sin stocks,” said Kripke, who has been part of the fund’s management team since 2015.
“We’ve expanded to not owning coal, and certain defense contractors, and the fund became a formal ESG fund in 2018,” he said. “The name of the fund didn’t change, but the ESG focus was formalized in the prospectus.”
Calvert Funds, which was acquired earlier this month by Morgan Stanley, marking its third owner in six years, is also illustrating the resilience of dedicated ESG investing strategies.
As a companywide winner, Chief Executive John Streur said, “It is hard to identify a specific area that has carried us.”
“ESG-wise, we are in a good position because the adoption of ESG by the marketplace we think is at the very, very beginning stages,” Streur said. “Even though the regulatory environment is not fully developed, and the vocabulary is still confusing for investors, the money coming in is strong. This is being led by client demand, not by a regulatory regime or new product ideas from the Wall Street machine.”
Beyond the ESG theme, which also stood out in the list of Lipper Award winners a year ago, 2021 produced a record 21 funds that swept the three-, five- and 10-year categories.
Invesco and American funds each had four funds that swept the three time-period categories.
“Such sustained excellence is at the very core of what these awards are looking to highlight in the industry,” said Robert Jenkins, global head of research at Refinitiv Lipper.
Jenkins described the $71.2 billion Vanguard International Growth Fund (VWIGX), which has swept all three time-period categories in each of the past four years as the “Meryl Streep of funds,” in a nod to the actress who has won multiple Academy Awards.
Vanguard, which won a total of 22 individual awards this year, credited its overall fixed-income award to experience and consistently low fees.
“In the fixed-income group, we’ve been managing bond funds for over 40 years,” said John Hollyer, Vanguard’s head of fixed income.
“Looking at our active and index funds, there is a breadth of reasons we’re receiving awards,” he added. “The team we have has tremendous strengths.”
American Century, which made news in 2020 for being the first asset manager to launch a semitransparent actively managed ETF, is showing that there is still plenty of firepower in the active management space.
“Active management performs well when things change,” said chief investment officer Victor Zhang.
“In 2020, despite all the volatility, the rate of change requires active decision-making,” he added. “With Covid and the onslaught of its impact, it required immediate responses. Passive investing is a byproduct of what active managers have already done. Within equities we were good in growth, value, U.S. and non-U.S, and it comes back to us having a very solid and robust team.”
And while American Century doesn’t openly promote itself as an ESG-focused company, Zhang said it is very much a part of the asset management philosophy.
“Before people were paying serious attention to sustainable being a global economic trend, we were looking at how real industries and companies are taking advantage of these trends, and right now 80% of our assets have ESG integration,” he said. “That doesn’t mean it’s an ESG portfolio, it means we consider ESG factors in our decision-making.”
At Carillon Tower, an investment subsidiary of Raymond James, the small company fixed-income winner attributed the award to not being too aggressive in chasing performance when yields have been so low.
“The environment today is as challenging as it has been in the past 30 or 40 years, and the important thing is you communicate to clients to have proper expectations,” said Mark Egan, chief investment officer at Reams Asset Management, the lead portfolio manager of the Carillon Reams Bond Funds.
The asset manager was cautious and conservatively biased heading into the pandemic because things were expensive, Egan said.
“Low-risk portfolios gave us the ability to take advantage of pandemic-related panic. We were positioned perfectly heading into the pandemic because we were positioned for a volatility storm,” he said.
Management Company | Lipper Classification | Full Fund Name | Ticker Symbol |
---|---|---|---|
Advisors Preferred LLC | Absolute Return Funds | Spectrum Advisors Preferred Fund, Investor | SAPEX |
Allianz Global Investors | Convertible Securities Funds | AllianzGI Convertible Fund, Institutional | ANNPX |
American Funds | Mixed-Asset Target 2035 Funds | American Funds 2035 Target Date Retirement Fund, R6 | RFFTX |
American Funds | Mixed-Asset Target 2040 Funds | American Funds 2040 Target Date Retirement Fund, R6 | RFGTX |
American Funds | Mixed-Asset Target 2045 Funds | American Funds 2045 Target Date Retirement Fund, R6 | RFHTX |
American Funds | Mixed-Asset Target 2050 Funds | American Funds 2050 Target Date Retirement Fund, R6 | RFITX |
American Funds | Mixed-Asset Target 2055+ Funds | American Funds 2055 Target Date Retirement Fund, R6 | RFKTX |
American Funds | Mixed-Asset Target 2060 Funds | American Funds 2060 Target Date Retirement Fund, R6 | RFUTX |
Astor Investment Management LLC | Alternative Multi-Strategy Funds | Astor Macro Alternative Fund, I | GBLMX |
Baillie Gifford Overseas Ltd | Global Large-Cap Growth Funds | Baillie Gifford Long Term Global Growth, 2 | BGLTX |
Baird Funds | Short Municipal Debt Funds | Baird Short-Term Municipal Bond Fund, Institutional | BTMIX |
Baron Funds | Global Multi-Cap Growth Funds | Baron Global Advantage Fund, Institutional | BGAIX |
Calvert Research and Management | Multi-Cap Core Funds | Calvert US Large Cap Core Responsible Index, I | CISIX |
Carillon Tower Advisers Inc | Core Bond Funds | Carillon Reams Core Bond Fund, I | SCCIX |
Columbia Threadneedle Investments | Absolute Return Bond Funds | Columbia Mortgage Opportunities Fund, I3 | CMOYX |
Dimensional Fund Advisors LP | Intermediate U.S. Government Funds | DFA Intermediate Government Fixed Income Portfolio, Institutional | DFIGX |
Dodge & Cox | Global Income Funds | Dodge & Cox Global Bond Fund | DODLX |
DoubleLine Funds | Large-Cap Value Funds | DoubleLine Shiller Enhanced CAPE, I | DSEEX |
DWS Investment Management Americas Inc | Real Return Funds | DWS RREEF Real Assets Fund, R6 | AAAVX |
Eaton Vance Management | Commodities General Funds | Parametric Commodity Strategy Fund, Institutional | EIPCX |
Fidelity Management & Research Company | Emerging Markets Funds | Fidelity Advisor Emerging Asia Fund, I | FERIX |
Fidelity Management & Research Company | Retirement Income Funds | Fidelity Managed Retirement 2025 Fund | FIXRX |
Fidelity Management & Research Company | Science & Technology Funds | Fidelity Advisor Technology Fund, I | FATIX |
Fidelity Management & Research Company | Short-Intermediate U.S. Government Funds | Fidelity Intermediate Government Income Fund | FSTGX |
FundX Investment Group LLC | Mixed-Asset Target Allocation Aggressive Growth Funds | FundX Upgrader Fund | FUNDX |
Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co LLC | Alternative Global Macro Funds | GMO Special Opportunities Fund, VI | GSOFX |
Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co LLC | Global Natural Resources Funds | GMO Resources, IV | GOVIX |
Guinness Atkinson Asset Management Inc | Global Equity Income Funds | Guinness Atkinson Dividend Builder Fund | GAINX |
Invesco Funds | California Municipal Debt Funds | Invesco California Municipal Fund, Y | OCAYX |
Invesco Funds | General & Insured Municipal Debt Funds | Invesco AMT-Free Municipal Fund, Y | OMFYX |
Invesco Funds | High Yield Municipal Debt Funds | Invesco Rochester Municipal Opportunities Fund, Y | ORNYX |
Invesco Funds | New York Municipal Debt Funds | Invesco Rochester New York Municipals, Y | RMUYX |
Invesco Funds | Pennsylvania Municipal Debt Funds | Invesco Pennsylvania Municipal Fund, Y | OPAYX |
Janus Capital Management LLC | Mixed-Asset Target Allocation Moderate Funds | Janus Henderson Balanced Fund, D | JANBX |
John Hancock Investment Management LLC | Global Large-Cap Value Funds | John Hancock Global Equity Fund, NAV | |
Johnson Investment Counsel Inc | Short-Intermediate Investment-Grade Debt Funds | Johnson Institutional Intermediate Bond Fund, I | JIBEX |
LoCorr Fund Management LLC | Alternative Managed Futures Funds | LoCorr Macro Strategies Fund, I | LFMIX |
Matthews International Capital Mgmt LLC | China Region Funds | Matthews China Small Companies Fund, Institutional | MICHX |
Matthews International Capital Mgmt LLC | Pacific Ex-Japan Funds | Matthews Asia Innovators Fund, Institutional | MITEX |
MFS Investment Management | Mixed-Asset Target Allocation Conservative Funds | MFS Conservative Allocation Fund, R4 | MACJX |
MML Investment Advisers LLC | International Large-Cap Core Funds | MassMutual Select Overseas Fund, I | MOSZX |
Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc | International Multi-Cap Growth Funds | Morgan Stanley Institutional International Opportunity Port, I | MNOPX |
Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc | Mid-Cap Growth Funds | Morgan Stanley Institutional Discovery Portfolio, IS | MMCGX |
Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc | Multi-Cap Growth Funds | Morgan Stanley Insight Fund, I | CPODX |
Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc | U.S. Mortgage Funds | Morgan Stanley Mortgage Securities Trust, I | MTGDX |
Nationwide Fund Advisors | Global Multi-Cap Core Funds | Nationwide Global Sustainable Equity Fund, R6 | GGEIX |
Needham Investment Management LLC | Small-Cap Core Funds | Needham Small Cap Growth Fund, Institutional | NESIX |
Nuveen | Minnesota Municipal Debt Funds | Nuveen Minnesota Municipal Bond Fund, I | FYMNX |
Orrell Capital Management Inc | Precious Metals Equity Funds | OCM Gold Fund, Advisor | OCMAX |
Parnassus Investments | Equity Income Funds | Parnassus Core Equity Fund, Institutional | PRILX |
PIMCO | Flexible Income Funds | PIMCO Preferred and Capital Securities Fund, Institutional | PFINX |
PIMCO | General Bond Funds | PIMCO Long-Term Credit Bond Fund, Institutional | PTCIX |
PIMCO | General U.S. Government Funds | PIMCO Long-Term US Government Fund, Institutional | PGOVX |
PIMCO | GNMA Funds | PIMCO GNMA and Government Securities Fund, Institutional | PDMIX |
PIMCO | Inflation-Protected Bond Funds | PIMCO Long-Term Real Return Fund, Institutional | PRAIX |
PIMCO | Short Investment-Grade Debt Funds | PIMCO Low Duration Income Fund, Institutional | PFIIX |
Amundi Pioneer Asset Management Inc | Large-Cap Core Funds | Pioneer Fund, Y | PYODX |
ProFunds Group | Dedicated Short-Bias Funds | ProFunds Short Oil & Gas ProFund, Investor | SNPIX |
Putnam Investment Management LLC | International Large-Cap Value Funds | Putnam International Value Fund, R6 | PIGWX |
RiverPark Advisors LLC | Alternative Long/Short Equity Funds | RiverPark Long/Short Opportunity Fund, Institutional | RLSIX |
SEI Group | Corporate Debt A-Rated Funds | SEI Institutional Inv Long Duration Credit Fund, A | SLDAX |
Shelton Capital Management | Natural Resources Funds | ICON Natural Resources Fund, Institutional | ICBMX |
T. Rowe Price Associates Inc | Ultra-Short Obligation Funds | T Rowe Price Ultra Short-Term Bond Fund, I | TRSTX |
Thrivent Asset Management | Mid-Cap Core Funds | Thrivent Mid Cap Stock Fund, S | TMSIX |
Transamerica Asset Management Inc | Energy MLP Funds | Transamerica MLP & Energy Income Fund, I2 | |
Vanguard Group Inc | California Intermediate Municipal Debt Funds | Vanguard California Intermediate-Term Tax-Exempt Fund, Admiral | VCADX |
Vanguard Group Inc | General U.S. Treasury Funds | Vanguard Extended Duration Treasury Index Fund, Institutional Plus | VEDIX |
Vanguard Group Inc | International Large-Cap Growth Funds | Vanguard International Growth Fund, Admiral | VWILX |
Vanguard Group Inc | Massachusetts Municipal Debt Funds | Vanguard Massachusetts Tax-Exempt Fund, Investor | VMATX |
Vanguard Group Inc | New Jersey Municipal Debt Funds | Vanguard New Jersey Long-Term Tax-Exempt Fund, Admiral | VNJUX |
Vanguard Group Inc | Short U.S. Government Funds | Vanguard Short-Term Federal Fund, Admiral | VSGDX |
Vaughan Nelson Investment Mgmt LP | International Small/Mid-Cap Core Funds | Vaughan Nelson International Small Cap Fund, Institutional | ADVLX |
Victory Capital Management Inc | Loan Participation Funds | Victory Floating Rate Fund, Y | RSFYX |
Wasatch Advisors Inc | Global Small-/Mid-Cap Funds | Wasatch Global Opportunities Fund, Institutional | WIGOX |
WCM Investment Management | International Small/Mid-Cap Growth Funds | WCM International Small Cap Growth Fund, Institutional | WCMSX |
Wells Fargo Funds Management LLC | Short-Intermediate Municipal Debt Funds | Wells Fargo Strategic Municipal Bond Fund, I | STRIX |
Wells Fargo Funds Management LLC | Utility Funds | Wells Fargo Utility & Telecommunications Fund, Institutional | EVUYX |
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