T. Rowe Price Glb Tech Eq Qd GBP 1

Analyst Report
Morningstar's Take
|18/12/2023

by Adam Sabban
T. Rowe Price Global Technology, which includes the U.S. mutual fund and the U.K. and Luxembourg-domiciled vehicles, has some promise but has much to prove following a key transition.

This strategy was overhauled at the end of 2022. Following a terrible stretch of performance and questions around portfolio construction and risk management, former manager Alan Tu was removed by the firm in favor of tech analyst Dominic Rizzo. Rizzo became comanager in December 2022 and began to shape the portfolio from then on, though he didn’t officially become the sole manager until April 2023. Concurrent with the personnel change was a process shift. The strategy had long been run aggressively—and to good results—though once the bull-market tailwind dissipated in 2022, the high risks it bared came home to roost. The strategy is now more thoughtful about risk and volatility when sizing positions and when it will own certain stocks altogether. The U.S. mutual fund also parks significantly more assets in the tech universe’s largest two stocks—Apple and Microsoft—which were formerly huge underweightings relative to the MSCI ACWI/Information Technology prospectus benchmark. These titans both receive wide Morningstar Economic Moat ratings and tend to perform defensively relative to the broader tech space when markets drop.

The portfolio as of September 2023 shows the extent of the changes. Apple and Microsoft took up over 25% of assets, followed by a collection of other large-cap stocks, such as Adobe, Samsung, and Amazon.com. European vehicles are more diversified and do not have positions over 10% of assets. Rizzo still holds some mid-caps, but these tend to be toward the tail of the portfolio, a key difference from before.

Rizzo’s investment framework is designed to be an all-weather process with moderate differentiation from the benchmark to smooth out the relative performance profile. It’s similar to a process that former manager David Eiswert employed to great success, though confidence in its implementation will take time and confirmatory data. Rizzo focuses on companies that are in secular growth markets with innovative technologies but seeks to own them only when their fundamentals are primed to improve and at reasonable valuations. There is a tactical element to the framework as opposed to the traditional buy-and-hold mindset. Turnover will likely remain around 75%, based on Rizzo’s guidance.

The strategy is off to a strong start under Rizzo—mostly thanks to the fortuitous timing of his December 2022 debut—though he did add value through stock selection in 2023. Still, it’s too soon to embrace this offering.
 
Morningstar Medalist Rating™Off to a good start, but it’s early.
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Morningstar Pillars
PeopleAverage
ParentHigh
ProcessAverage
 
Morningstar Medalist RatingMorningstar assigns the Medalist Rating to funds that are qualitatively and quantitatively assessed through manager research and algorithmic processes. The assessment turns on three key “pillars” – People, Process, and Parent – that yield an estimate of how well a fund will perform before fees but after adjusting for risk.
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