JPMorgan Mid Cap Growth remains a decent option at the right price thanks to a good investment team and the support of a strong firm.
This strategy is settling in under a new lead manager, but it still has the resources to succeed. Felise Agranoff assumed the top spot after longtime manager Tim Parton retired in March 2024. She's a 20-year veteran of the firm who spent many years supporting Parton as an analyst and then as comanager from the start of 2016. All along, the strategy has performed quite well, ranking in the top quartile of the mid-cap growth Morningstar Category over the trailing 10-year period ended June 2024. Agranoff is joined by comanager Daniel Bloomgarden, who was promoted from an analyst position in July 2022. The two leverage an eight-member dedicated analyst team with a reasonable amount of industry experience and tenure at the firm.
The investment process here is unusual, and despite some favorable qualities, it remains to be seen how it will fare under Agranoff. Despite typically sporting one of the category's least differentiated portfolios relative to the Russell Midcap Growth Index, the strategy has still been able to generate a performance edge. That's because it has thrived using breadth rather than a handful of bold picks. The portfolio usually holds over 100 stocks, including a mix of high-conviction ideas and ones with less certainty but enough upside to warrant exposure, particularly if they are a large benchmark constituent. Agranoff intends to keep this structure.
Less certain though, is its stylistic orientation. It historically traded stocks using fundamental momentum as a component, preferring to initiate positions in stocks on the rise and cut those seeing slowing business trends. Agranoff fully subscribes to that philosophy, and perhaps more so than under Parton. According to the Morningstar Risk Model, the portfolio's exposure to the momentum factor relative to the benchmark recently reached its highest point since she joined as comanager in 2016. This may just be a blip on the radar, however, and it is too early in Agranoff's tenure as lead manager to draw meaningful conclusions about the process' evolution, if any.