Key Morningstar Metrics for American Funds EUPAC
- Morningstar Medalist Rating: Gold
- Process Pillar: Above Average
- People Pillar: High
- Parent Pillar: High
A robust management team and solid supporting cast, coupled with a flexible approach, make American Funds EUPAC RERGX (formerly American Funds Europacific Growth) a strong option.
This fund stands out among foreign large-growth Morningstar Category peers with a veteran management team and vast analytical support. Five of the 11 managers have been on the fund for at least 15 years. Carl Kawaja joined this fund in 2000 and oversees the 11-person group. While the other six managers are not as tenured, each has more than 20 years of investment experience. Noriko Chen, who only ran a small percentage of assets, came off the fund in late 2024 to focus on other responsibilities. Behind the management team sits a 150-member analyst team that is deep and talented.
This fund employs a broad and flexible approach that allows its managers to leverage their preferred styles and the full complement of the firm’s robust resources. All three equity subsidiaries are used here to find opportunities across the extensive international equity universe. While the managers generally target firms with attractive growth prospects, investors ply their preferred styles in individual slices of the portfolio. The resulting portfolio consistently lands in the large-growth portion of the Morningstar Style Box, though it’s not as aggressive as many peers.
The fund has performed well versus its comparable indexes. During the trailing 15- and 20-year periods through June 2025, the R6 share class beat both the MSCI ACWI ex USA Index (its chosen benchmark) and the more-relevant MSCI ACWI ex USA Growth Index in each period. The fund has struggled during the trailing year through June 2025, owing in part to underweighting financials and healthcare picks. Yet, since its longest-tenured manager joined the fund in 2001 through June, over rolling five-year return periods, the fund has outpaced both indexes and the category average at least 80% of the time.
Over the long term, investors stand to be rewarded on account of its low costs and consistency, both in personnel and investment profile.
American Funds EUPAC: Performance Highlights
The fund has delivered solid long-term results versus its benchmarks. The R6 shares’ 7.7% annualized return during the trailing 15 years through June 2025 surpassed the 6.7% and 7.1% gains for the MSCI ACWI ex USA Index (its chosen benchmark) and the more apt MSCI ACWI ex USA Growth Index.
The fund has typically gotten ahead by being less volatile than the index, but that hasn’t been the case more recently. The fund soared in 2020 as several of the fund’s picks, such as Mercado Libre MELI and Sea Ltd SE, rose sharply thanks to strong demand during the pandemic. However, a rotation out of those fast growers caused the fund to reverse course in 2021 and land in the bottom quintile of its foreign large-growth category. The fund’s overweighting in energy, with picks such as Canadian Natural Resources CNQ, helped buoy the fund in 2022 relative to peers and the growth index; however, it lagged the core index.
The fund has had more middling performance of late. As growth rebounded in 2023, the fund outpaced the growth index and tied the broad index, but it landed in the middle of the category. It posted a similar result in 2024 and the first half of 2025, as healthcare picks and a financials underweighting hurt results. Still, over longer periods, the fund has performed well. For example, during the more than 200 rolling five-year return periods since the longest manager’s start, the fund has outpaced both indexes and the category average at least 80% of the time.