James Carthew: JAM or Pershing? Which is best to capture US growth?
JPMorgan American was its sector’s best performer in 2023 with strong numbers following a revamp five years ago. However, Pershing Square’s record can’t be dismissed either.
Within the North America sector, last year’s winner was JPMorgan American (JAM), which generated an underlying investment return of 24.7% in sterling terms, beating its S&P 500 index benchmark which gained 18.9%. Those figures would have been even better but for a weak dollar.
The turnaround in JAM’s performance in recent years has been impressive. In 2019 it adopted a new strategy whereby most of the portfolio was split between high-conviction large-cap value and large-cap growth stocks, run by two different fund managers, plus a smaller allocation to smaller companies.
JAM has benefited from having meaningful exposure within the growth part of the portfolio to the Magnificent Seven mega-cap tech stocks that soared on the back of the AI boom last year.
The line-up on the fund is about to change as growth manager Timothy Parton retires. The move has been well-flagged – the original announcement was made in summer 2022 – and incoming lead manager Felise Agranoff, who was made a co-portfolio manager in August 2022, has been working on the strategy for many years. It should be business as usual.
read more here