Bestinvest says
Jenny Jones has over 30 years' experience investing in US companies. Her fund benefits from investing in a variety of stock types, which should enable it to perform throughout a market cycle. Historically it has proven resilient in falling markets, partly due to the “steady eddie” stocks held in the portfolio, though it can underperform strongly rising markets. We continue to rate Jones as a manager but downgraded the fund from 5 to 2 stars in February 2010 when Schroder reinstated its initial charges to limit fund inflows.
The investment universe comprises around 1800 stocks with a market cap between US$200m and US$2bn at the time of purchase, essentially those in the Russell 2000 benchmark but excluding the less liquid names. The portfolio is built primarily on a bottom-up basis by Jones and her team of analysts and includes three types of companies:
- Mispriced growth (50-60% of portfolio) – companies where sustainable change is occurring that will lead to higher earnings, revenues, cashflows or margins over 2-3 years.
- Steady eddies (20-30%) – companies growing consistently, though generally at lower rates than the mispriced growth stocks.
- Turnarounds (0-20%) – companies whose growth engine has broken, but where the manager sees a catalyst for a return to growth.
The overall portfolio typically displays a bias to both growth and value factors - a growth at a reasonable price style.