NEW YORK, Oct. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Capital IQ today announced the Gold, Silver, and Bronze award recipients in its second annual US Mutual Fund Excellence Awards Program.

The recipients were recognized as having most consistently achieved the highest overall quantitative ranking of five-star in their category based upon S&P Capital IQ's proprietary, holdings-based research.  This year's results cover a 12-month period, ending August 31, 2011.  For 2011, there were 11 repeat recipients, though no fund repeated in the "Gold" category.  There were also 12 first-time fund family recipients.

For 2011, the recipients are:

Global Equity

International Equity

Domestic Large Cap Equity

Domestic Mid Cap

Domestic Small Cap

Domestic MultiCap

Taxable Fixed Income

Blended Individual Securities

Blended Fund of Funds

New and Notable

NOTE: Funds in bold were recipients of an award in 2010, though no fund finished in the same place.

"It's exciting to see both a number of familiar firms as well as many new fund families among this year's award recipients," said Todd Rosenbluth, Senior Director and a mutual fund analyst at S&P Capital IQ.  "We think this says something both about the competitiveness of the industry and the turbulence in the broader markets over the past year. The funds that stood out in our approach did so in part for their favorable risk considerations."

The S&P Capital IQ mutual fund research methodology is a quantitative process developed to provide a more holistic view of mutual funds by analyzing a broad range of inputs that include risk-reward profile, cost factors, manager tenure, and the quality of underlying holdings, in addition to performance.  Unlike some methodologies, it is not simply a backwards look at performance and fees.

"It has been a challenging period for both advisors and investors, with fund managers and their shareholders alike continuing to feel the impact of the financial crisis on both equity and fixed income portfolios," said Stephen Biggar, Managing Director, Global Equity Research at S&P Capital IQ. "In spite of this, these managers have managed to distinguish themselves in spite of the difficult investing conditions.  We are pleased to recognize these funds and fund families for their outstanding efforts."

S&P Capital IQ will hold a webinar to discuss the key themes discovered while analyzing the top funds in ten key categories on Wednesday, October 19th at 4:00 pm ET.  Click on the following link to register for the webinar. http://ow.ly/6WEMb

About the S&P Capital IQ Mutual Fund Awards
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. Additional information about the awards program, the selection methodology, and the award recipients is available at www.spfundawards.com.

The analytical and ethical conduct of S&P Capital IQ's equity analysts is governed by the firm's Research Objectivity Policy, a copy of which may be found at http://www.standardandpoors.com.

About S&P Capital IQ

S&P Capital IQ, a brand of the McGraw-Hill Companies MHP, is a leading provider of multi-asset class data, research and analytics to institutional investors, investment advisors and wealth managers around the world. We provide a broad suite of capabilities designed to help track performance, generate alpha, identify new trading and investment ideas, and perform risk analysis and mitigation strategies. Through leading desktop solutions such as Capital IQ, Global Credit Portal and MarketScope Advisor desktops; enterprise solutions such as S&P Securities Evaluations, Global Data Solutions, and Compustat; and research offerings including Leveraged Commentary & Data, Valuation & Risk Strategies and S&P Equity Research, S&P Capital IQ sharpens financial intelligence into the wisdom today's investors need.

About Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC

Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC ("S&P") and its affiliates provide a wide range of services to, or relating to, many organizations, including issuers of securities, investment advisers, broker-dealers, investment banks, other financial institutions and financial intermediaries, and accordingly may receive fees or other economic benefits from those organizations, including organizations whose securities or services they may recommend, rate, include in model portfolios, evaluate or otherwise address.

S&P or an affiliate may license certain intellectual property or provide pricing or other services to, or otherwise have a financial interest in, certain issuers of securities, including exchange-traded funds and mutual funds whose investment objective is to substantially replicate the returns of a proprietary S&P index, such as the S&P 500. In cases where S&P or an affiliate is paid fees that are tied to the amount of assets that are invested in the fund or the volume of trading activity in the fund, investment in the fund will generally result in S&P or an affiliate earning compensation in addition to the subscription fees or other compensation for services rendered by S&P.

S&P its affiliates or their third-party providers do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of any information, including model, software or application, they provide, and are not responsible for errors and omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of such information.  S&P, its affiliates and their third party providers disclaim any and all express or implied warranties.

The credit-related analyses, including ratings, of S&P and its affiliates are statements of opinion as of the date they are expressed and not statements of fact or recommendations to purchase, hold, or sell any securities or make any investment decisions.  Users of ratings or credit-related analyses should not rely on them in making any investment decision.  S&P's opinions and analyses do not address the suitability of any security.  S&P does not act as a fiduciary or an investment advisor.

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Fund awards, rankings, or a reference to a particular investment or security by S&P or one of its affiliates is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold such investment or security, nor is it considered to be investment advice.

No endorsement of any mutual fund included in a mutual fund report should be implied by the fact that the mutual fund bears the S&P mark. S&P and its affiliates do not sponsor, endorse, sell, promote or manage any investment fund or other vehicle that is offered by third parties and that seeks to provide an investment return based on the returns of any S&P index. S&P does not receive fees from funds included in mutual fund reports. No other unit of S&P, including S&P Indices and S&P Rating Services, contributes to the content of a mutual fund report. Credit ratings are not the sole input for determining a ranking. Rating criteria and credit rating scales may differ among credit rating agencies. Ratings assigned by other credit rating agencies may reflect more or less favorable opinions of creditworthiness than ratings assigned by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.

S&P Capital IQ does not trade for its own account.

For more information contact:

Marc Eiger, Communications, Tel.: 212-438-1280
marc_eiger@standardandpoors.com

SOURCE S&P Capital IQ