Morningstar’s mutual fund quote pages feature key performance and operations information on individual mutual funds, including portfolio allocations, risk metrics, management insights, and more. To find a mutual fund’s quote page, type a ticker or fund name into the search bar on any page of Morningstar.com. Morningstar Investor subscribers get exclusive access to our full analysis of the fund as well as expanded performance information.
Below is an overview of key metrics contained in each area of the page that can help you assess a mutual fund’s potential strengths and long-term value.
1. What is Morningstar’s overall take on the mutual fund?
The Morningstar Medalist Rating is the forward-looking assessment of an investment strategy. The rating is on a five-tier scale running from Gold to Negative. For actively managed funds, Morningstar assigns Gold, Silver, and Bronze ratings to vehicles expected to add value over the long term when compared with a relevant Morningstar Category index after accounting for fees and risk. For passive strategies, funds and ETFs with the top ratings are expected to deliver alpha that exceeds the lesser of the category median net alpha, or zero, over the long term.
The following pillars are used to designate an appropriate Morningstar Medalist Rating for each respective fund:
- Parent: This pillar analyzes the parent organization in charge of managing the fund.
- People: This pillar evaluates the managers who are responsible for making key decisions regarding the fund.
- Process: This pillar determines whether the strategies a parent organization applies to a fund is both effective and repeatable.
You can see further insights and analysis behind each pillar at the bottom of the Quote tab.
2. How has the fund performed against its peers?
The Morningstar Rating for funds (commonly called the “star rating”) is a backward-looking assessment of a fund’s risk-adjusted performance compared with its category peers. The peer group, or Morningstar Category, is located in the data table below the fund’s name.
3. Quote tab
The Quote tab provides a high-level overview of fund’s operations and Morningstar’s overall take.
- The top data table provides basic information such as a fund’s current category, dividend yield, overall size, and fees.
- The Morningstar’s Analysis section provides a preview of the pillar assessments for the fund. These analyst-curated insights and opinions are a key benefit of a Morningstar Investor membership, which also unlocks access to related analysis tools such as Screener, Watchlist, and Portfolio.
- Performance and Portfolio sections offer insight into the fund’s performance history compared with its peers and a snapshot of its top holdings, respectively.
- If the mutual fund offers other share classes, such as retirement plans, institutions, or those specifically for advisors, they will be listed at the bottom of this tab.
4. Chart tab
This tab provides users with the opportunity to view historical performance of the mutual fund alongside other investments such as stocks, ETFs, and market indexes. Various technical tools such as moving averages and dividends are also available.
5. Fund Analysis tab
As mentioned above, this section provides rationale for the Morningstar Medalist Rating assigned to the fund.
The rating is on a five-tier scale running from Gold to Negative. For actively managed funds, Morningstar assigns Gold, Silver, and Bronze ratings to vehicles expected to add value over the long term when compared with a relevant Morningstar Category index after accounting for fees and risk. For passive strategies, funds and ETFs with the top ratings are expected to deliver alpha that exceeds the lesser of the category median net alpha, or zero, over the long term.
The following pillars are used to designate an appropriate Morningstar Medalist Rating for each respective fund:
- Parent: This pillar analyzes the parent organization in charge of managing the fund.
- People: This pillar evaluates the managers who are responsible for making key decisions regarding the fund.
- Process: This pillar determines whether the strategies a parent organization applies to a fund is both effective and repeatable.
The analysis also includes an assessment of a fund’s fee level relative to similarly distributed peers and information on the portfolio’s sustainability profile.
6. Performance tab
A fund’s performance tables allow for a quick comparison between the fund, its category peers, and a relevant market index over multiple time periods. The top graph also overlays partial or total management changes to assess the relevancy of past performance compared with the current portfolio managers. (More information about management changes is available on the People tab.)
7. Sustainability tab
This section provides aggregated data on a fund’s underlying holdings, culminating in a fund’s overall Sustainability Rating. The rating is a measure of how well a portfolio’s holdings are managing their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks relative to the portfolio’s Global Category peer group. ESG risk considers how material ESG issues (such as resource management and labor relations) could influence a company’s economic value. If available, this section also contains commentary from the research team on how ESG components factor into the fund’s security selection process.
8. Risk tab
Return matters little if you don’t understand how much risk was taken to generate said return. In the Risk tab, we lay out the standard risk metrics (Alpha, Beta, Volatility, etc.) of a fund along with capture and drawdown ratios. Morningstar’s proprietary Portfolio Risk Score also gives users a holdings-based assessment of a fund’s portfolio, ideal for comparison against other potential investments.
9. Price tab
As mentioned above, fees directly reduce the return available to investors. As such, a fund’s relative fee level can have a material impact on its ability to outperform peers. The section provides information on both fees and estimated taxes. Of note is a fund’s Morningstar Fee Level. The ongoing Fee Level is an assessment of a fund’s fees and expenses relative to other funds marketed to similar investors (advisors, institutions, retirement plans, etc).
10. Portfolio tab
Morningstar’s Portfolio tab is enhanced with insights into investment factors such growth, value, and momentum, and other metrics that can help you understand the characteristics of the stocks held by equity funds, if applicable. In the Financial Metrics section of this tab, you’ll find a breakdown of the fund’s exposure to stocks with varying economic moats. An economic moat is a durable, material competitive advantage that allows a company to earn excess returns on capital for a long period of time and keep competitors at bay. Our analysts assign every company they cover a Morningstar Economic Moat Rating of wide, narrow, or none. In the Holdings section at the bottom of this tab, you can check out what a manager has recently bought or sold, and see how long a holding has been in the portfolio.
11. People tab
The people referenced here are the portfolio managers on the fund. A portfolio manager has day-to-day responsibility for monitoring the holdings and executing changes, and on this tab, you can examine managers’ tenure lengths and investments in the fund. Investment in a fund helps align a manager’s financial outcomes with that of the fund investors. At the bottom of the tab, you’ll find a summary of the team’s record of voting on management and shareholder resolutions of the portfolio holdings.
12. Parent tab
The parent overview provides a holistic picture of the fund’s management company. Number of funds, asset flows across the company, and a breakdown of funds by Morningstar Medalist and Star Rating are included. This tab features a concise visual summation of where the firm’s management lands across style, market cap, and asset classes. For additional parent information, click on the “See (firm name) Investment Hub” link right below the fund’s name at the top of the page.