BGF Global Allocation A2

Analyst Report
Morningstar's Take
|16/05/2024

by Jason Kephart
A senior leadership transition doesn’t dull our view of BlackRock Global Allocation. It remains a top choice for investors looking for a globally diversified balanced strategy.

In June 2024, David Clayton, lead of this strategy’s fundamental equity sleeve, will retire. Clayton has been on the team for more than a decade and was named as a portfolio manager in 2017. Although his experience can’t be replaced, we expect a seamless transition to Sarah Thompson, who will assume his role. Thompson joined the fundamental equity team in 2018 and previously served as BlackRock’s global director of credit research for five years; she worked closely in that role with Rick Rieder, this strategy’s lead architect. She was recruited to the team before Rieder joined because of her expertise in credit research, where analyzing a company’s full capital structure from equity to debt was paramount in making good calls.

The fundamental equity sleeve, which makes up about 40% of assets, has undergone the most change since Rieder took over leadership of the strategy in 2019. The portfolio has become more concentrated and has shrunk to 80-120 names from more than 400. The stock selection focus has also shifted more toward companies with strong cash flows, like mega-caps Microsoft and Amazon.com.

Rieder has updated the strategy's approach to top-down positioning since he joined, too. While previous management's focus on relative valuations steered the portfolio toward Japan and Europe, Rieder's macro research favors the US because of the country's higher growth expectations. There has also been an increased emphasis on incorporating more nontraditional high-frequency data, like web traffic, to determine where economic growth is being over- or underanticipated, which is used to help inform portfolio positioning. The strategy's risk management capabilities have also sharpened. It leverages BlackRock's vast resources to ensure there are no unintended bets and exposures. Given the strategy’s broad remit, having the tools to effectively monitor the portfolio’s exposures is a key attribute. Altogether, these changes make for a more robust process than many peers.
 
Morningstar Medalist Rating™On top of the world.
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Morningstar Pillars
PeopleAbove Average
ParentAbove Average
ProcessHigh
 
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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