New Ratings
PIMCO Dynamic Bond R Acc – Silver
Mara Dobrescu, CFA
PIMCO Dynamic Bond benefits from the firm’s deep macroeconomic expertise and is supported by a large team of managers and analysts with extensive knowledge across global-bond sectors. Lead portfolio manager Marc Seidner has led this offering since 2015 and boasts more than three decades of investment experience. He is joined by PIMCO's CIO Dan Ivascyn, who chairs the 17-member investment committee responsible for formulating the firm's top-down views. Three experienced portfolio managers round out the Dynamic Bond team, including Mohit Mittal, who oversees several of the firm's corporate trading desks and manages a variety of strategies, and two securitized specialists. The fund’s clean share class (R Acc) carries a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Silver. More costly share classes earn Bronze and Neutral ratings.
Upgrades
M&G Global Dividend GBP I Acc – Silver from Bronze
Jeffrey Schumacher, CFA
M&G Global Dividend continues to benefit from the stock selection skills of portfolio manager Stuart Rhodes. He has navigated the fund well through different stages of the economic cycle and adhered to his investment philosophy and convictions when facing headwinds. Rhodes sometimes goes against the grain, but has demonstrated his stock-picking talent since the fund’s inception in 2008. The fund’s focus on dividend growth, its hallmark bucket structure and the consistency in execution give us comfort. Both the People and Process pillars retained their Above Average pillar scores, but a reduction of the annual charge for the GBP I Acc share class, which went down from 0.90% to 0.70%, led to an upgrade of its Morningstar Analyst Rating from Bronze to Silver.
Rerated from Under Review
Eastspring Investments Japan Dynamic – Neutral from Under Review
Samuel Lo, CFA
Dean Cashman will retire and hand over the leadership of Eastspring Japan Dynamic to Ivailo Dikov in April 2022. Cashman, who previously underpinned our conviction in the strategy, has more than three decades of investment experience with Japanese stocks and has achieved an impressive long-term track record here since 2006. Dikov has 16 years of Japanese equities experience and joined the team in 2013. He has an uninspiring track record managing the Eastspring Japan Value strategy since June 2015, initially with Cashman as a comanager before becoming the sole manager since September 2019. Compared with Eastspring Japan Dynamic, which is benchmark-unconstrained and focuses on the team’s highest-conviction ideas, the Japan Value strategy is benchmark-aware and has a less concentrated portfolio and lower expected tracking error, raising concerns whether Dikov can manage the higher-octane Eastspring Japan Dynamic strategy effectively. Meanwhile, we have some ongoing reservations around the team’s approach towards portfolio construction and risk management. As such, the People rating was downgraded to Average from Above Average, while the Process rating was maintained at Average. The Morningstar Analyst Rating for some of the cheaper share classes, including the clean R share class, has been downgraded to Neutral from Bronze, while the more expensive share classes remain at Neutral.
Moved to Under Review
Capital Group Japan Equity
Daniel Haydon
