95% of all Large Value funds outperformed the S&P 500 in January, and 68% of them beat the Russell 1000 Value index, reports an article in CityWireUSA, giving value managers something to finally celebrate. Given that only 4 of those funds beat the S&P 500 in the 3-year period through January, this new surge shows a real improvement.

The results weren’t as spectacular in the Large Blend category, with 203 out of 415 beating the S&P 500 in January. And in Large Growth, only 2.97% of the 370 funds outperformed the S&P 500. That’s a major drop from the 3-year trend, when 64.9% of the funds beat the benchmark. Compared to the Russell 1000 Growth index, 37.6% of Large Growth funds ended January ahead of the index, an improvement over their 3-year performance when just 6.4% of the 313 funds outperformed the benchmark.

Looking at Large Value funds, the $7 billion Federated Hermes Strategic Value Dividend fund came out on top, recording a 4.38% return. Large sector bets in energy and utilities paid off for the fund, which has struggled in the long term. The second-best value fund in January was the $283 million Hennessey Cornerstone Value fund, with a 3.77% return.

In Large Blend, Steward Equity Market Neutral posted a 5.1% return, making it the top performer. However, given the fund only launched in November 2021, it’s expected it won’t stay in the Large Blend category for too long. The $166 million Centre American Select Equity fund ranked second, posting a 1.28% return, capitalizing on its 3-year annualized return of 22.5%, as opposed to the S&P 500’s 20%.

And in Large Growth, the $868 million GQG Partners Select Equity fund posted a 1.25% loss, with energy taking up 11.5% of the fund, versus the category average of 1%. That fund launched in September 2018, and has recorded an annualized 20.99% return.