Morningstar's evaluation of this fund's process aims to determine how repeatable, consistent, and reliable execution is, and whether management maintains competitive advantage. JPMorgan Small Cap Blend Fund earns an Above Average Process Pillar rating.
This strategy leans toward smaller, more value-oriented companies than its average peer in the Small Growth Morningstar Category. Analyzing additional factors, this strategy tilts toward low-quality stocks or the shares of companies with more financial leverage and lower profitability. These are not defensive holdings. The strategy is also historically less exposed to the factor compared with Morningstar Category peers. Given the high trading volume of holdings, this strategy is exposed to liquid assets. Although this may mean managers are paying a premium, in the case of a market downturn, it contributes to a more flexible exit strategy. But when compared with category peers, the strategy historically has had less exposure. Additionally, this strategy has low yield exposure, with the portfolio holding fewer stocks with high dividend or buyback yields. Companies that choose not to return capital to shareholders are often investing for growth and carry more downside risk. However, the portfolio has less exposure than its Morningstar Category peers. More information on a fund and its respective category's factor exposure can be found in the Factor Profile module within the Portfolio section.
The portfolio is overweight in financial services and real estate relative to the average peer in its category by 7.9 and 4.4 percentage points in terms of assets, respectively. The sectors with low exposure compared to their category peers are technology and healthcare, underweight the average by 8.1 and 6.8 percentage points of assets, respectively. The portfolio is positioned across 234 holdings and assets are more dispersed than peers in the category. In particular, 10.3% of the strategy's assets are concentrated in the top 10 fund holdings, as opposed to the typical peer's 25.6%. And finally, in terms of portfolio turnover, this fund trades less frequently than the category’s average, potentially limiting costs to investors.