It’s easy to become a hyperfocused investor. With so much investment information available, you can spend all your time chasing advisor suggestions, scrolling through financial articles, and screening mountains of performance data to find the most perfect investments.Not everyone can, or wants to, invest like that. For investors who desire a more hands-off option that…

Large-cap stocks have dominated in recent years, leaving the average mid-cap blend fund trailing the broader market. However, a few mid-cap blend funds have kept up, including the Vanguard US Momentum Factor ETF VFMO.To screen for the top-performing funds in this category, we looked for those with the best returns over the last one-, three-,…

Large-blend funds offer investors broad exposure to the stock market, combining the largest growth, blend, and value companies. To screen for the top-performing funds in this category, we looked for Morningstar Medalist funds with the best returns over the last one-, three-, and five-year periods. Eight large-blend funds made it through the screen. Notably, in…

You could lose money by investing in a money market fund. An investment in a money market fund is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. Before investing, always read a money market fund’s prospectus for policies specific to that fund. Past performance is no guarantee of…

Dividend stocks are popular investments: Many investors rely on the regular dividend payments these stocks offer as sources of passive income. Of course, investors can pursue a total return approach to generating income to meet their spending needs, too. Or they can combine the two income strategies.Exchange-traded funds that invest in dividend-paying stocks can be…

These days, investors may well find that their list of worries is long and growing: Slow global growth, a slumping stock market, meager bond yields, and eventual interest-rate hikes all loom large.But there’s another risk that investors should have on their radars: the risk of a big taxable distribution from one of their mutual funds.…

Running a mutual fund, like running any business, has certain costs associated with it, and every party that performs a function along the line needs to get paid somehow. But as Morningstar’s John Rekenthaler and Paul Ellenbogen recently pointed out, fund prospectuses often paint those expenses in very broad strokes, and reporting methods vary; for…

It’s back! After a five-year hiatus, Morningstar’s Fund Family 150 Digest is back to help investors evaluate the largest fund families in the US. The 2024 edition illustrates the ways the asset-management industry is evolving through topics like exchange-traded fund exposure, alternative fund offerings, and women portfolio managers. It also features classic due diligence considerations…

Over the past 12 months, the Morningstar US Growth Index boasted a return of 21.49% versus 14.56% for the Morningstar US Value Index. Given the sizable performance gap between the two styles, many (including Morningstar’s chief US market strategist David Sekera) argue that value stocks currently look like a better opportunity than growth stocks.“Investor enthusiasm…

The 60/40 portfolio is back at all-time highs after a tumultuous stretch that started in 2022. The Morningstar US Moderate Target Allocation Index, which resembles a typical diversified balanced fund, has gained more than 6.3% for the year to date through mid-June, and despite continued pessimism from some market observers, the outlook isn’t as grim…

Large-growth funds posted strong gains in 2024, thanks partly to the artificial intelligence boom. Despite slipping in December, the average large-growth fund beat the broader market last year.To screen for the top-performing funds in this category, we looked for those with the best returns over the last one-, three-, and five-year periods. Among large-growth funds,…

Dividend stocks are the Dolly Parton of investing: Everyone seems to like them.Many retirees rely (at least somewhat) on the regular income that dividend stocks generate. Nonretirees, meanwhile, enjoy “getting paid to wait”—collecting regular income from quarterly dividends while holding on for stock price appreciation.Looking back at 2024, the returns of the Morningstar Dividend Yield…