NewsSmall-Company Stock Fund Brings Home the Gold
2011 Mutual Fund Excellence Awards
Homestead Funds is pleased to announce that the Small-Company Stock Fund has been named the gold winner in its category by the S&P Capital IQ U.S. Mutual Fund Excellence Awards. The awards recognize mutual funds that have achieved the highest overall ranking on the most consistent basis for the period 8/31/10 to 8/31/11.
"The Homestead Small-Company Fund received the Gold Award in our Domestic Small-Cap category for its strong risk-adjusted track record, its relatively low turnover rate, and for recently owning a number of stocks that we view as undervalued," said Todd Rosenbluth, a mutual fund analyst at S&P Capital IQ, the mutual fund research provider that developed the awards program.
The Small-Company Stock Fund opened to shareholders in March 1998 and is managed by Homestead Funds President and CEO, Peter Morris, Senior Equity Portfolio Manager Stuart Teach and Equity Portfolio Manager Mark Ashton. In addition to investing in smaller companies, the managers take a value approach by picking stocks selling at what they determine to be a discount to intrinsic value.
Homestead Funds is a first-time winner in the awards program, which is in its second year. Rosenbluth remarked that the large number of new fund families among this year’s winners indicates the relative competitiveness of the industry and the turbulence of the broader markets over the past year. He noted that the funds honored were chosen in part for their favorable risk considerations. To select winners, the research firm used a quantitative process of analyzing the risk-reward profile, cost factors, manager tenure, quality of the underlying holdings, and performance.
Read more about the Small-Company Stock Fund.
NOTE: Equity funds, in general, are subject to style risk, the risk that returns on stocks within the style category in which the fund invests will trail returns of stocks representing other styles or the market overall. In addition, small-capitalization stocks have historically carried additional risks, since smaller companies generally have experienced a greater degree of market volatility than other funds that provide broader diversification.
The S&P Capital IQ Mutual Fund Awards is an annual awards program managed by the equity research unit of S&P Capital IQ and is based on proprietary, quantitative research methodology. The awards recognize those U.S. mutual funds that have achieved the highest overall ranking on the most consistent basis during the measurement year August 31, 2010 through August 31, 2011, except for the New and Notable category. Among the factors the research process seeks to identify are consistently strong performance; high quality holdings as measured by S&P STARS equity research, S&P Credit Ratings and S&P Quality Rankings; and favorable cost factors.
