Top Actively Managed Mutual Funds by AUM

hank

I wondered how the largest actively managed mutual funds had performed during the first quarter.

The listed numbers represent what I pulled up on Lipper. They are as of Friday’s close. No doubt, I screwed up a few. But most I think are pretty accurate. The linked chart lists the 100 largest actively managed funds by AUM in 2021.* I only had time to pull up the return of about the first 25. But from the looks, most were negative and none rose to the 1% positive level. One wonders if perhaps further down the list the results were any better …

*I’m aware the linked list may be incomplete. Hopefully it serves as a representative sampling of the largest funds. I’ve noticed that when you click on one below the YTD return changes. That is for the most part, I think, because those numbers include Monday’s result. However, rather than relying on what I dug up, I suggest you click on the link for whatever fund you want to check. Data is more recent and probably a bit more accurate.

First Quarter 2022 Performance (Numbers drawn from Lipper)

AGTHX -10%

CWMAX -1.64%

CWMCX -1.83%

CWMEX -1.70%

CWMFX -1.61%

FCNTX -9.57%

AWSHX -1.67%

AIVSX -4.15%

ANCFX -5.23%

AMCFX -12.0%

CAFAX -12.0%

CAFCX -12.23%

FMACX -11.96%

AFMFX +0.51%

AMRFX +0.49%

CMLAX +0.43%

CMLCX + 0.24%

CMLEX +0.37%

CMLFX +0.47%

TRBCX -12.03%

FBGRX -12.5%

FDGRX -12.56%

EAGRX +0.74%

AMCPX -12.03%

AMRMX +0.43%

msf

An informative compilation, though one might organize it differently.

The list has multiple share classes for funds (e.g. CWMAX, CWMCX, CWMEX, CWMFX, AWSHX) for (American) Washington Mutual Investors Fund. What, no WSHFX?

On the one hand, it is true that each share class has somewhat different returns due to different expense and sales structures. On the other hand, it may be more helpful to order largest funds by the size of their portfolios rather than the size of each share class. A representative share class' return should be adequate to give a general sense of performance.

M*'s fund screener shows 13 non-index funds with over $100B in AUM. Here are the top 10 funds (ranked by total fund assets), along with quarterly returns, their M* percentile rankings, M* selected index returns, and category returns:

Fund	Return	Pctile	Index	Category
GFAFX	-10.72%	  55	-9.47%	-10.76%
BALFX	 -4.04%	  28	-5.17%	 -4.63%
AEGFX	-12.33%	  41	-5.38%	-13.43%
WSHFX	 -1.97%	   8	-5.27%	 -5.23%
PIMIX	 -4.20%	  42	-6.00%	 -4.29%
NPFFX	-10.04%	  37	-5.35%	-12.27%
IFAFX	 -1.33%	   7	-5.18%	 -5.15%
AFIFX	 -5.80%	  65	-5.27%	 -5.23%
GFAFX	 -9.84%	  45	-9.47%	-10.76%
AICFX	 -4.70%	  40	-5.27%	 -5.23%	($121B AUM)

Overall, not a bad showing relative to the indexes. But this is for just one quarter. And if funds don't excel in down markets (between cash drag and the ability to react to market conditions), how well do they perform over whole cycles?

At least these jumbo funds are somewhat outperforming their peers.

Side note (techical) - AFIFX mouse-over is showing class F01. It should be F-1. Could be a data feed error.

rforno

My 403b is entirely in RWMGX (AF WashMu R-6, related to WSHFX) and I've been quite pleased with its performance this year. Kudos to Capital for a job well-done thus far.

hank

Thanks for taking a look. Yes, if I were to do it again I’d do it differently - weed out duplicates (same fund / different share classes) and toss in more variety. Ran out of gas late last night and been traveling all day today.

There was a certain logic that motivated me. I’d assumed the funds grew large because they were highly successful at one time (probably a long time) and thereby attracted a lot of money. In a sense, they ought to represent “the best” out there. (A flawed argument I know). In addition, one might also argue that we’ve been through a highly atypical market period so that even the best active management struggled to stay above water.

Anyway, thanks for looking.and for filling in some holes!