In December, Morningstar analysts upgraded the ratings of three U.S. mutual funds and downgraded 10. In addition, analysts assigned new ratings to five funds and placed eight funds and one target-date series under review.
The upgraded funds were:
BlackRock Total Return A (Bronze to Silver)
Diamond Hill Long-Short A (Neutral to Bronze)
TIAA-CREF Bond Instl (Neutral to Bronze)
The downgraded funds are:
Deutsche Strategic High Yld Tx-Fr S (Bronze to Neutral)
DFA Emerging Markets Value I (Silver to Bronze)
Fairholme Focused Income (Bronze to Neutral)
Franklin High Income A (Silver to Neutral)
Ivy Core Equity C (Bronze to Neutral)
Osterweis (Bronze to Neutral)
Third Avenue Real Estate Value Instl (Gold to Silver)
Thornburg International Value A (Bronze to Neutral)
Vanguard Energy Inv (Gold to Neutral)
Waddell & Reed Core Investment A (Bronze to Neutral)
The funds with new ratings are:
AQR Style Premia Alternative LV I (Bronze)
Columbia Dividend Opportunity A (Neutral)
Dreyfus/Standish Global Fixed Income I (Neutral)
T. Rowe Price Tax-Free Income Inv (Gold)
T. Rowe Price Tax-Free Shrt-Interm (Gold)
The eight funds under review are:
Columbia Acorn International Select Z (Bronze)
Franklin Income A (Bronze)
Janus Aspen Balanced Instl (Silver)
Janus Balanced T (Silver)
Janus Flexible Bond T (Silver)
Janus High-Yield T (Bronze)
Janus Short-Term Bond T (Neutral)
PIMCO RealPath™ Income A (Bronze)
The target-date series under review is the PIMCO RealPath™ Target-Date Series (Bronze).
Morningstar also affirmed the ratings of 63 U.S. funds and one target-date series in December. That list is available here.
Morningstar’s Analyst Ratings represent the firm’s conviction in a fund's ability to outperform its peers and/or relevant benchmarks on a risk-adjusted basis over a market cycle of at least five years. As of Dec. 31, 2015, Morningstar analysts had assigned a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Gold to 133 unique U.S. funds, a Silver rating to 270 funds, a Bronze rating to 331 funds, a Neutral rating to 278 funds, and a Negative rating to 31 funds.
