Increased confidence in Ramona Persaud, FEQIX Manager at Fidelity Equity-Income, increased the upgrade of the process pillar from above average, increasing Morningstar medalist ratings to gold from silver.
Persaud has climbed the ladder since joining Fidelity in 2003. She managed sector funds and international dividend funds for over a decade. She worked on the fund since late 2011 and won the lead in early 2018. Persaud continues to strive to improve by regularly reviewing how she carries out the process, no matter how strong or weak the fund performs. She is not stuck in any particular way of doing things and willingly adapt.
Under Persaud's surveillance, the fund achieved solid capital gains and negative side protection. She has also surpassed the average for the high-value Morningstar category and the Russell 1000 value index by 1 percentage point a year since she took over. Persaud makes every portfolio decision, but is also drawn to a deep, experienced team of around 60 US equity analysts, as well as quantitative analysts and managers dedicated to Fidelity's value and stock revenue efforts.
Fidelity Equity-Income's Important Morningstar Metrics
Morning Star Medalist Rating: Gold
Process pillar: above average
Pillars of People: High
Parent pillar: above average
Increased portfolio concentrations and abundant valuations raise concerns
QDF concentrations in the FlexShares Quality Diimidend ETF sector and individual stock courts returned volatility, leading to downgrades of the above-average to average process pillars, reducing the exchange-sales fund medalist ratings from silver to neutral.
A big value strategy tracks Northern Trust quality dividend index, selecting components of dividend pay from the Northern Trust 1250 index. Due to the nature of the index, this ETF's portfolio has around 30% of the assets of technology stocks, acquired by the Russell 1000 Value Index triple. As a result, stocks from the finance, energy and healthcare sectors have little impact on this portfolio.
The strategy is also focused on Top Holdings, where Apple AAPL, Microsoft MSFT, NVIDIA NVDA, META Platforms Meta and Alphabet Google claim 27% of its portfolio. Many of these holdings lead to boom or bust results on its benchmark rather than valuing the Russell 1000's value and sports rich, making FlexShares' quality dividend ETF look like a large blend fund.
FlexShares Quality Dividend ETF's Key Morning Star Metrics
Morning Star Medalist Rating: Neutral
Process Pillars: Average
People's Pillars: Average
Parent Pillars: Average
Lead Manager departures promote people downgrade
Eaton Vance removed lead manager Andrew Svene from Eaton Vance's floating rate advantage EIFAX and several other funds in January 2025, resulting in people being above average and removing the I stock medalist rating from copper to neutral. Svene, who also heads floating rate loans and chairs Morgan Stanley's bond division, will leave the company in May. Peter Campo, who headed Goldman Sachs' high yield and floating rate teams and previously worked at Eaton Vance for 15 years, will take over Eaton Vance's bank loan platform at the end of April. It is unclear whether Campo will join the management team for this strategy.
Despite Svene's sudden departure, we are confident that we will remain the rest of the Commanager and Bank veterans Ralph Hinckley and Jake Lemur. Over 20 people from the Bank Loan Research Team support managers.
Important Morning Star Metrics for the Benefits of Eaton Vance's Floating Rate
Morning Star Medalist Rating: Neutral
Process pillar: above average
People's Pillars: Above average
Parent Pillars: Average
