Putnam New Opportunities APNOPX

Morningstar Rating

Fund Research and Analysis

by Jonathan Rahbar

Putnam New Opportunities needs to distinguish itself from the pack.

As with most of Putnam's equity fund lineup, this offering has seen some management changes over the past year. A number of managers focusing mainly on quantitative factors were let go after poor performance, and Gerry Moore was the last man standing amidst the turnover. Read more

Kudos

Relatively low cost. Read more

Risks

Gerry Moore has served only as a comanager on Putnam's funds prior to being named this fund's lead manager in November 2008.

A sizable small- and mid-cap stake will cause the fund to lag when these segments of the market fall out of favor.

The fund's long-term returns don't stand out.

Manager turnover has been a concern in recent years. Read more

Strategy

Putnam recently collapsed this fund's separately managed small-, mid-, and large-cap sleeves. Previously, four managers ran the large-cap portion of the fund; another manager ran the small- and mid-cap sleeve, which took up 20% assets. Read more

Management

Manager turnover has been excessively high at this fund. Gerry Moore became this fund's sole manager in November 2008, when Putnam fired comanagers Kevin Divney, Rick Weed, and Brian DeChristopher and removed comanager Ray Haddad from the team. Moore has been responsible for large-cap stock selection here since November 2007. Read more

Inside Scoop

Putnam has gone through numerous changes in the executive and investment-management ranks over the few years. This fund's new lead manager, Gerry Moore, doesn't have a long track record as a lead portfolio manager in a mutual fund setting. Read more

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