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The Best Green Fund?
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In late-2007 Kiplinger.com frankly described the Winslow Green Growth Fund and its sister Winslow Green Solutions as "the two best green funds". A year earlier the fund had been named the Best Socially Screened Fund for 2006 by Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine.
In 2007 the fund's manager, Jack Robinson, was named the #2 fund manager in the aggressive growth category in the Barron's/Value Line annual mutual fund survey, and #10 equity mutual fund manager overall.
In the same year it was ranked by Lipper as the top small-cap growth fund over a three-year period, as well as #4 over five years and #39 over one year.
What else makes it so special?
Its longevity for one thing. Most specialized green funds are fairly recent creations. But the Winslow fund already has a 14-year record.
It can also boast strong performance. To the end of March 2008 it had recorded annual average growth over 10 years of 10.9 per cent. For fives years the figure was 18.3 per cent, for three years 7.7 per cent and for one year a negative 7.6 per cent return.
It is a growth fund, concentrating on smaller companies that it believes are poised for rapid and accelerating expansion, driven by new product launches, developing market trends or other factors. Typically the fund will hold 30 to 40 stocks, each with a market capitalization of $50 million to $2 billion.
In fact, the portfolio is an eclectic bunch of stocks, not at all typical of other green funds. As of March 31st, 2008, apart from the the top holding - First Solar, representing 6.4 per cent of the portfolio - few of the companies in the Top Ten would be well-known to many investors.
The Number Two holding, accounting for six per cent of the portfolio, was Vermont-based Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, a specialist in Fair Trade and organic coffees and a public company since 1993.
A further 5.2 per cent of the portfolio was accounted for by SurModics, which specializes in drug delivery technologies for the healthcare industry, with the same percentage for fitness center operator Life Time Fitness.
In fact, Sustainable Living was nearly a quarter of the entire portfolio, and the largest of all the sectors. Besides Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and Life Time Fitness, other Sustainable Living holdings included Chipotle Mexican Grill, Organic To Go Food Corp, United Natural Foods and Whole Foods Market.
The second-largest sector represented in the portfolio - accounting for nearly 20 per cent of the total - was Green Building Products, with stocks that included LSB Industries (components for residential and commercial climate control equipment), WFI Industries (geothermal heating and cooling systems) and LSI Industries (LED lighting).
June 30th, 2008
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