Some funds don’t shoot for the stars. Instead, they stay away from the valleys. That strategy sums up the American Century Mid-Cap Value fund.
As of October 06, 2016, the fund has assets totaling almost $8.22 billion invested in 111.00 different holdings. Its portfolio consists of stable mid- and large-cap U.S. stocks that offer low volatility.
“If there’s one line I could give you [about the stocks we look for], it’s high quality, low volatility,” said Portfolio Manager Kevin Toney. “We’re kind of the tortoise in the tortoise and the hare race. We just kind of plod along. We have a little less upside in up markets but much less downside in down markets. So over time, we feel our investors get a smoother ride.”
That was the case in 2008 when the fund lost 12 percent less than its peer average. When other mid-cap value funds rallied the following year to average gains of more than 33 percent, the fund tagged close behind with a 30 percent gain. The fund has returned 19.05 percent over the past year and 11.95 percent over the past three years.
Management says its investment strategy doesn’t change depending on the market. While management focuses on value plays, it doesn’t look for what Toney calls “deep value.”
“We’re looking for companies that are bent, not broken,” Toney says. “Like in 2008, when GM and Ford were kind of still around, we wouldn’t have been trying to pick between those two. We’d be looking at Toyota.”
The fund’s high turnover belies the fact that management buys and sells gradually. “We don’t make big portfolio changes. We’re incremental. As a stock outperforms, we sell it incrementally,” Toney says. Management focuses on mature companies with low volatility.
Management favors steady industrials like its top holding, waste management firm Republic Services. The fund will also veer toward larger firms than its mid-cap moniker implies, as the fund’s managers oversee two other American Century large-cap funds. The fund has returned 16.97 percent over the past five years. It opened in 2004.