Morgan Stanley has overtaken Baillie Gifford to claim the top spot on FundCalibre’s latest Fund Management Equity Index 2022.
Figures published by FundCalibre, which ranked outperformance in equity investing over a five-year period, showed Morgan Stanley has reclaimed the top spot, after it missed out to Baillie Gifford last year.
Morgan Stanley’s average fund returned 44.63 percentage points more than its peers over the five years to December 31 2021.
Darius McDermott, managing director of FundCalibre, said the research demonstrates “quite clearly” that good active management is not a “myth” or good luck, it is based on skill.
McDermott said: “Baillie Gifford and T. Rowe Price, for example, have both been in the top ten for each of the eight surveys we have compiled the report, spanning a time period of more than a decade. That shows consistently excellent stock-picking skills and value added for investors.”
FundCalibre's top ten fund groups 2021
Rank 2021 | Rank 2020 | Fund group | Five yr average performance | Percentage of funds outperforming | Average OCF | Number of funds |
1 | 2 | Morgan Stanley | 44.63% | 100% | 0.92% | 7 |
2 | 1 | Baillie Gifford | 44.47% | 88% | 0.61% | 17 |
3 | 5 | FSSA | 30.65% | 75% | 1.03% | 4 |
4 | 12 | Marlborough | 28.76% | 73% | 1.01% | 11 |
5 | 40 | Brown Advisory | 27.48% | 80% | 0.79% | 5 |
6 | 19 | Liontrust | 24.69% | 81% | 0.92% | 21 |
7 | 7 | Matthews Asia | 23.97% | 67% | 1.03% | 9 |
8 | 4 | T Rowe Price | 22.9% | 88% | 0.92% | 16 |
9 | New entry | Nordea | 22.78% | 75% | 1.15% | 4 |
10 | 16 | Allianz | 22.54% | 73% | 0.93% | 11 |
Source: FundCalibre
The index compares sector averages over a five-year period and fund groups must have a minimum of four qualifying funds to be included in the data.
Growth-focused houses continued to dominate the top of the table, with Morgan Stanley, Baillie Gifford, T. Rowe Price, Martin Currie and Comgest all in the top 20.
However the gap between growth and value is starting to narrow.
Despite M&G, Schroder and Invesco, sitting in the bottom of the half of the table, they all delivered a small outperformance in 2021.
Martin Currie delivered a big turnaround, as it has moved from being the second worst performing fund group in 2015 to sitting in 14th place this year.
McDermott said, said 2021 was a difficult year for growth investors.
“Nevertheless, the strongest groups have maintained their consistency, albeit with lower levels of outperformance,” he said, adding while the gap between growth and value investors is still wide, it does seem to be closing and 2022 could be a much better year for the latter if the first few weeks are anything to go by.
Growth stocks have suffered due to a market rotation towards value stocks since the start of the year, driven by a rise in inflation and interest rates.
Last month, Baillie Gifford dropped out of FE Fundinfo’s top ten fund houses, after a number of its funds' ratings were dropped.
sally.hickey@ft.com
