By Matteo Anelli, senior reporter, Trustnet,18 October 2024:
Value investors don’t have as broad a choice as growth enthusiasts when it comes to selecting funds and trusts, with the number of active managers buying unloved stocks dwindling after almost a decade of growth superiority.
Two prominent names are Ian Lance and Alex Wright, managers of the Temple Bar and Fidelity Special Values investment trusts respectively.
Despite implementing the same investment style, focusing on undervalued UK equities, the two strategies are only 78% correlated to each other and have outperformed their benchmark, the FTSE All Share index, at different times.
The Fidelity vehicle had the upper hand over the past 10 years and 12 months, while Temple Bar stood out over three years, as the table below shows.
However, as noted by QuotedData senior analyst Matthew Read, Ian Lance is only responsible for the performance since 2020, when he was appointed manager together with Nick Purves. Since then, there has been “a noticeable improvement in performance”.
This is during a time when macroeconomic considerations have generally outweighed individual stockpicking decisions, said Read, which is “problematic” for these portfolios.
“Generally, both styles have faced headwinds as inflation has moderated and investors have preferred growth but, despite this, both have produced respectable numbers,” he noted.
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