In an investment industry known for big egos, overconfident analysts and “activists” who routinely tell CEOs how to run their companies, investor Nancy Zevenbergen and her team of four portfolio managers differentiate themselves by simply listening.
Zevenbergen, 61, founder of $5.7 billion (assets) Zevenbergen Capital Investments, believes the crucial job of an investor in today’s economy is to uncover the next great entrepreneur or technological innovation early on. The style is about “optimism and a view toward what the future might be,” she says. According to Zevenbergen, her task is to be curious and “understand the ‘crazy’ visions of new leaders and become investors alongside them.” If she likes a company, her Seattle-based firm will load up and watch from the sidelines, tracking the business patiently and holding their shares so long as growth doesn’t stall. Rarely do they worry too much about valuation.
This humble approach to investing has yielded results that make Zevenbergen among the best investors in the world. She has stuck by mercurial Elon Musk and owned Tesla for about a decade; Tesla’s stock is up 730% this year, and is the top performing stock of the ten years. She discovered Ottawa, Canada-based ecommerce company Shopify and its founder CEO Tobi Lütke in late 2016 when it was trading below $50; it now trades for $1,170.
Last September, Zillow chief executive Rich Barton decided the real estate platform would begin buying homes, leading to complaints from skeptics who sent its shares cratering 20% to below $30. Zevenbergen’s team liked Barton’s experimentation and built a large position. Fifteen months later, Zillow now trades for $140.
With stock-picks like these, Zevenbergen’s Innovative Growth Fund (SCATX) and Genea Fund (ZVGNX) are up a staggering 126% and 154%, respectively, in 2020. Of over 1,000 peer funds tracked by Morningstar, the two mutual funds rank in the top percentile.
Zevenbergen created her firm from her living room in the late 1980s with just $500,000 in assets while she nursed a young child. Her flagship strategy has beaten the S&P 500 Index by around four percentage points annually since 1987, but 2020 was a watershed. Assets more than doubled soaring towards $6 billion, based on performance and inflows to her mutual funds.
Zevenbergen is not the only woman fund manager who has crushed competition in 2020. Forbes found at least a half a dozen firms led by women-led funds that have blown away their peers and drawn in tens of billions of dollars in assets collectively since the start of January.
Cathie Wood, founder of Ark Investments, had the best year of anyone. In 2014, Wood, 65, created Ark with the idea of packaging stock-picking into tax-efficient exchange traded funds, and focusing exclusively on breakthrough innovations in genomics, robotics, financial technology, autonomous driving, digital services, and artificial intelligence.
Six years later, Ark manages nearly $44 billion in assets, up from just $300 million at the end of 2016. This year, Ark funds have pulled in over $10 billion in new assets, led by extraordinary returns. Her flagship Ark Innovation Fund (ARKK) has seen assets soar to $17 billion, fueled by a 154% gain in 2020 and a 46% average annual return over the past five years. Her $6 billion Ark Genomic revolution ETF is up even more this year. “I wanted individual investors to catch the wave,” says Wood of today’s enormous technological change. Her funds were designed for those “willing to step out and away from fixed income and into some of the most exciting stocks in history.”
Ark publishes its financial models, trading logs, and research to the investing public, and the firm’s analysts are happy to engage in discussion on Twitter, opening themselves to criticism and mockery. Wood’s $4,000 a share valuation of Tesla a year ago drew many scoffs on Wall Street. But her heady valuation was spot on. Short sellers have been burned by Tesla’s rise, while female investors like Zevenbergen and Wood have been patient bulls. On Friday, Tesla was added to the S&P 500 Index.
Female investing success in 2020 extends well beyond soaring growth stocks. Women-run funds are leading the way in everything from small cap stocks, to emerging market debt portfolios, dividend paying companies, and sustainable investments.
Amy Zhang, portfolio manager of the Alger Small Cap Focus Fund (AOFIX) and Mid Cap Focus Fund (AFOIX) was hired in 2015 to expand Alger’s presence in niche small and mid-cap stocks. When Zhang arrived at Alger, the Small Cap Focus Fund had just $16 million in assets. Now, after a 54% return in 2020 and a 30% annual average return over the past five years, Zhang’s Small Cap Focus Fund has $7.5 billion in assets.
Top holdings include refrigerated logistics upstart CryoPort and fast casual restaurant Wingstop. Her Mid Cap Focus Fund, launched in mid-2018, has attracted over $500 million in assets as it has soared by 84% in 2020, bolstered by casino operator Penn National Gaming and power equipment manufacturer Generac.
Long before sustainable investments became a prolific buzzword, Karina Funk, an MIT-educated engineer at Baltimore-based mutual fund giant Brown Advisory, was a pioneer in bringing sustainable investments mainstream. Funk, 48, a vegetarian who watches her carbon footprint by biking to work, launched the Brown Advisory Sustainable Growth Fund in June 2012, alongside David Powell, with a goal to back about 35 companies with products improving social and environmental sustainability, or efficient operating footprints.
Its focus on companies like Ball Corp. and American Tower has made it one of the best funds on the planet during down markets. Even in 2020, the fund has gained 38% despite its defensive posture, thanks to savvy picks like life sciences conglomerate Danaher and Etsy, which has empowered many small businesses during the pandemic. Funk can be a tough customer. She exited Facebook in the fall of 2018 due to data privacy concerns.
“Sustainability is a means, not an end in and of itself,” she told Forbes as part of a profile three years ago, when the fund’s assets were just $1.1 billion. “Our end goal is performance. We achieve that by finding fundamentally strong companies using sustainability strategies to get even better.” The fund’s assets have since soared to $4.6 billion.
Other female-led funds that have done well include Capital Group’s $128 billion American Funds New Perspective (ANWPX), led by a team of managers including Joanna Jonsson and Noriko Chen, and the $36 billion in assets JPMorgan Equity Income Fund (HLIEX), led by Clare Hart. The New Perspectives fund has beaten its benchmark by four percentage points annually over the past decade, while Hart’s Equity Income Fund has returned an annualized 11.65%, two percentage points annually above its benchmark, according to data from Morningstar.
Rebecca Irwin, Natasha Kuhikin and Kathleen McCarragher of the $1.3 billion in assets PGIM Jennison Focused Growth Fund (SPFAX) have returned 68% in 2020 and 25% over the past five years, ranking in the top decile of peer funds. At Alger, Ankur Crawford, co-manager of the Alger Spectra Fund (ASPIX) and Alger Capital Appreciation (ACCAX) has seen returns surpass 40% this year.
In fixed income, Tina Vandersteel of the $4.4 billion in assets GMO Emerging Country Debt Fund (GMCDX) has been able to outperform emerging market bond indices despite underweighting China and many Gulf-states due to her skepticism of the veracity of their economic data.
The bull market of 2020 is also creating new opportunities for female fund managers to shine. Two years ago, Julie Biel of Los Angeles-based Kayne Anderson Rudnick, was a rising star at the $30 billion (assets) firm and excited about the looming public offering of software company DocuSign. Known for investing in established businesses, Kayne had never participated in an IPO. Biel was late in her pregnancy as the IPO progressed and trying to win an allocation. She needed a doctor’s note to fly to the Bay Area to meet with DocuSign’s management. Kayne eventually won a large block of shares, quickly becoming one of its largest outside investors.
Biel also began to manage the firm’s KAR Small Mid- Sustainable Growth strategy around that time and made DocuSign the fund’s top holding. Its shares have risen 225% in 2020. This year, Biel’s fund has returned 42% through November. In December, Kayne decided to launch a mutual fund version, launching the strategy, called the Virtus KAR Small-Mid Cap Growth Fund (VIKSK), with Biel in charge.
Like Zevebergen and Wood, Biel is starting small and manages just $60 million. But the investment industry rewards performance above all, hinting at much larger things to come. Entering 2021, Biel’s portfolio is loaded with hidden gems like Ollie’s Bargain Outlet and MarketAxess that could grow for years to come. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Send me a secure tip.
I’m a staff writer and associate editor at Forbes, where I cover finance and investing. My beat includes hedge funds, private equity, fintech, mutual funds, mergers, and banks. I’m a graduate of Middlebury College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and I’ve worked at TheStreet and Businessweek. Before becoming a financial scribe, I was a member of the fateful 2008 analyst class at Lehman Brothers. Email thoughts and tips to agara@forbes.com. Follow me on Twitter at @antoinegara
.
.
More Contents:
Australia: Hays identifies insurance skills most in demand this year http://www.asiainsurancereview.com – January 13[…] | 12 Jan 2021 Other News Australia Brokers C-Suite People Claims Within Australia’s insurance job market, the skills in greatest demand this year include those of brokers with a Tier 1 qualification an […] – such niche expertise is in short supply yet growing demand as insurance companies move this to businesses’ customer facing systems […]1
Asia: Majority say technology has improved access and affordability of health services http://www.asiainsurancereview.com – January 13[…] A slight majority of respondents report sourcing health information from social media; a far lower proportion consult formal medicine […] Around one-quarter (24%) have also sought to improve their mental health, a need underscored by the 34% who say the COVID-19 crisis has caused them greater stress, anxiety or depression. Income levels do not dictate health and wellness optimism. The Health of Asia Barometer developed for this report reveals a striking contrast between the less and mor […]1
India: COVID-19 has created huge awareness of protection plans http://www.asiainsurancereview.com – January 13[…] has created huge awareness of protection plans By Jimmy John | 12 Jan 2021 Other News India Life & Health The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about huge awareness in the Indian market of the need and benefits of protection plans, and the life insurance industry must take advantag […] there were huge opportunities created and the industry must bring in greater professionalism to the market,” he said […]N/A
UAE: Salama appoints new CEO http://www.meinsurancereview.com – January 13[…] from his position of CEO, according to the company in a statement lodged with the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) […]1
Is link building outdated? Why we should still consider it | Marketing Donut http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk – Today[…] NAP citations, when the NAP information is consistent across different websites and listing platforms, can have an incredibly positive effect on your website’s SEO performance, especially for local businesses. Google My Business Listing: Simply having a Google My Business listing is not nearly enough. Google wants businesses to update and optimise their My Business listings with complete and honest information […]N/A
Smoke break while fixing up a Triumph motorcycle (1960s) : OldSchoolCool
http://www.reddit.com – Today[…] Now, government mandated marketing (which I’m sure includes negative product placement) has convinced us that smoking is a mora […]N/A
Communism Test
http://www.idrlabs.com – Today[…] The current test was created by professionals certified in the delivery and scoring of numerous psychological measures, who have worked professionally in various fields of psychology including social psychology, political psychology, and personality testing. Free online tests such as the IDR-CBT are intended solely as informative and entertaining first looks at th […] answer regarding any aspects of an individual’s personality traits, overall character, or psychological state. Though developed and statistically validated by psychology professionals, free online tests such as the present communism test do not provide professional assessments, scorin […]131
Light/Dark Triad Test http://www.idrlabs.com – Today[…] IDRlabs is not affiliated with any of these researchers or their institutions […] ” Frontiers in Psychology […] Furham, Richard & Paulhus: The Dark Triad of Personality: A 10 Year Review (Social and Personality Psychology Compass Volume 7, Issue 3, 2013) pp […]5
What’s love got to do with it – Teddington Theatre Club – Arts Richmond http://www.artsrichmond.org.uk – TodayWHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT 13 Feb 2021 – 14 Feb 2021 9:00 am From 9am Online Join Teddington Theatre Club on their YouTube Channel on 13th and 14th February 2021 as the […] The event is free to view, with more details and running order available via the TTC website closer to the date […] This event is free to view, but if you would like to make a small donation then it would be greatly appreciated […]0
FTSE 100 stumbles as sterling rallies strongly after Bank of England governor reiterates negative interest rates scepticism http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk – Today[…] after last week’s unrest remains to be seen, but in any event, the spotlight is being shone on social media, despite the likes of Twitter and Facebook having banned his account. “The feared outcome of a Congressional review of social media underlined the broader concern that for big tech, increased regulation is on the way […] This was partly due to fears that big tech companies, in particular social media firms, could come under tougher regulation, said market analyst David Madden at CMC Markets. “President Trump’s Twitter and Facebook accounts have been suspended because of allegations that his comments sparked the riot in th […]0
Rane ONE
OTC Dynamics | $MMNFF MedMen Announces Additional US$10 Million Senior Secured Convertible Note Financing Under Gotham Green Facility
http://www.otcdynamics.com – Today[…] gross proceeds under its senior secured convertible facility (the “Facility”) led by funds affiliated with Gotham Green Partners (“GGP”) together with certain additional amendments to the facility an […] and third-party consents or failure to satisfy other conditions to such proposed dispositions; the loss of markets or market share; the permanent or temporary loss of licenses and permits reducing revenues; the dilutive impact of raising additional financin […] com/news/home/20210112005717/en/ Contacts: MEDIA CONTACT: Tracy McCourt MedMen Chief Revenue Officer Email: communications@medmen […]1
The Beauty Trends & Innovations Conference | Beauty Trends Conference
http://www.beautytrendsconference.com – Today[…] 30 Morning Refreshment Break With Informal Networking Social Media & Influencer Strategies | Panel Discussion & Q&A 11.00 The Unstoppable Power Of Social: Determine Winning Social Media Strategies & The Value Of Influencer Marketing To Guarantee Brand Engagement & Prove Social ROI Establish a truly authentic voice on social and execute successful social strategies to ensure an engaged consumer base With Instagram an […]1
RANE One Professional Motorised DJ Controller – DJbox, Dublin, Ireland
Cryptology News