Blend funds, also known as hybrid funds, aim for value appreciation through capital gains. They owe their origin to a graphical representation of a fund’s equity-style box. In addition to diversification, blend funds are great picks for investors looking for a mix of growth and value investment. A mid-cap blend fund is a type of equity mutual fund that holds a mix of value and growth stocks in its portfolio, where the market cap of the stocks is generally between $2 billion and $10 billion.
Below, we share with you three top-ranked mid-cap blend mutual funds, namely Ave Maria Value AVEMX, Vanguard Strategic Equity Investor Shares VSEQX and DFA U.S. Vector Equity DFVEX. Each has earned a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and is expected to outperform its peers in the future. Investors can click here to see the complete list of funds.
Ave Maria Value invests primarily in common stocks believed to be priced at a discount to their true value. It invests the majority of its net assets in companies meeting its religious criteria. AVEMX invests in securities of companies of various market caps. The fund has returned 15.9% over the past three years.
As of June 2025, AVEMX held 31 issues, with 13.9% of its assets invested in Texas Pacific Land.
Vanguard Strategic Equity Investor Shares invests most of its net assets in small and mid-cap domestic equity securities based on their relative return potential. VSEQX advisors do this by applying a quantitative process to evaluate all of the securities in the MSCI U.S. Small + Mid Cap 2200 Index while maintaining a risk profile similar to that of the index. The fund has returned 20.5% over the past three years.
VSEQX has an expense ratio of 0.17%.
DFA U.S. Vector Equity invests the majority of its assets in a well-diversified and broad group of U.S. operating companies, preferably in smaller-capitalization, lower relative price and higher-profitability companies in the United States. DFVEX advisors generally define the U.S. Universe as a set of U.S. operating companies listed on a securities exchange in the country that are market-cap weighted. The fund has returned 18.4% over the past three years.
John A. Hertzer has been one of the fund managers of DFVEX since February 2022.
To view the Zacks Rank and the past performance of all mid-cap blend mutual funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of mid-cap blend mutual funds.
Zacks’ free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing mutual funds, each week. Get it free >>