Bob Carlson maintains several diversified portfolios in his industry-leading advisory, Retirement Watch. Included in his portfolios are funds meant to add global exposure, including these two profiled below.
One of our fund holdings that has benefitted from the global stock rally is WCM Focused International Growth (WCMRX). The fund is up 27.59% for the year.
WCMRX is concentrated on what the fund’s managers believe are the best of the great growth companies around the globe. The fund owns only 31 stocks and 43% of the fund is in its 10 largest positions.
Top positions in the fund recently were MercadoLibre, Taiwan Semiconductor, Shopify, Lululemon Athletica and CSL Ltd. Nine of the fund’s 10 largest positions have 12-month returns exceeding 25%, and two have returns above 170%.
WCMRX first identifies companies with high returns on equity and little or no debt. Then it closely examines the companies. The fund wants management that is focused on developing a culture of growth. It also wants companies that are benefitting from key global trends and that have some barriers to competition.
We’re also invested in Asian emerging economy equities through T. Rowe Price New Asia (PRASX). I liked Asian equities even before the pandemic. Asian economies had a rough couple of years and appeared to be poised to resume their historic above-average growth.
The pandemic cut short the recovery as it hit Asia first. But the region also contained the virus better than most other areas, and the region’s economies recovered faster. Asian economies are reporting good numbers and appear to be able to sustain them.
PRASX is another fund that focuses on the manager’s favorite stocks. The fund owns 73 stocks and has 46% of the fund in the 10 largest positions. The fund looks for companies with sustainable growth that are selling at reasonable values.
While the companies are based in Asia, many of them have global markets. About 47% of the portfolio is in China-based companies. Other leading regions represented in the fund are Taiwan, India, Hong Kong and South Korea.
Top holdings recently were Tencent Holdings, Samsung Electronics, Taiwan Semiconductor, Alibaba Group and AIA Group. The fund is up 33.96% for the past 12 months.
