Large-Blend Funds Take The Lead For Year-To-Date Total Returns

When it comes to domestic asset classes, the category of large blend has outpaced the others, year-to-date. Large blend means the portfolio contains investments from throughout the spectrum of available large-cap stocks, interns of size, price and sector. In practice, this can mean that fund returns may be very similar to those of an S&P 500 index, even when investors are paying an active manager. If large cap stocks happen to be out of favor at any given time, a large blend fund may lag other asset classes. Fortunately for large-cap investors, those stocks have been in favor this year. A top-performing large-blend fund is the Buffalo Dividend Focus Fund BUFDX, with a total return of 21.82 percent so far this year. This fund invests in dividend-paying equities, including common ad preferred stocks, rights, warrants and convertible securities. It seeks to invest at least 80% of its assets in dividend-paying stocks. While the fund's focus is on U.S. stocks, it may also invest up to 20% of net assets in American Depositary Receipts of companies based outside the U.S. Top holdings are: ◦ Apple Inc AAPL ◦ Abengoa Yield PLC ABY ◦ General Motors Co GM ◦ Intel Corp INTC ◦ EQT Midstream Partners LP EQM The Nuveen Concentrated Core Fund NCADX is another that has held the right mix of investments in 2014, for a year-to-date total return of 20.24 percent. The fund focuses on the larger companies in the Russell 1000 Index of domestic large-cap stocks. The manager selects investments using fundamental and quantitative analysis, and employs risk management screens, as well. Top holdings are: ◦ Time Warner Cable Inc TWC ◦ Western Digita. Corp WDC ◦ Aetna Inc AET ◦ Wellpoint Inc WLP ◦ Amgen Inc AMGN