SANTA MONICA, Calif., Oct. 26, 1998 (PRIMEZONE) -- The Wilshire Target Large Company Growth Fund (NASDAQ: DTLGX) outperformed the S&P 500 year-to-date and over the last one-year, three-year and five-year periods, ended September 30, 1998. The fund is one of only 12 mutual funds that has beaten the S&P 500 over these periods without a change in manager.
"The truth is, in this volatile market, there haven't been many havens investors could run to for both solid returns and stability in a manager," said Tom Stevens, Wilshire Asset Management's Chief Investment Officer.
The ranking is based on a study of more than 10,000 mutual funds from the Morningstar Principia Pro Plus database for mutual funds ending September 30, 1998. Wilshire screened those funds that individually met the following criteria: manager tenure over 5 years; fund performance exceeding year-to-date S&P 500 return of 6.13 percent; fund performance exceeding one-year S&P 500 return of 9.15 percent; fund performance exceeding three-year S&P 500 return of 22.62 percent; and fund performance exceeding 5-year S&P 500 return of 19.91 percent.(a) The number of funds that met all of these criteria is 12.
The Wilshire Target Large Company Growth Fund is up 18.76 percent year-to-date versus the S&P 500's 12.52 percent (as of October 22, 1998), although past performance is no guarantee of future results.(b) The fund posted annualized returns of 13.94 percent over the past year, 22.18 percent over the last five years and 18.49 percent since inception (9/30/92), for the periods ended September 30, 1998.
According to the study, of the 12 funds, only one other firm had no-load funds with lower expense ratios than Wilshire's Large Company Growth Fund.
"Our low-cost approach to managing mutual funds allows us to pass on those savings in the form of lower fees," said Stevens, adding that Wilshire's philosophy is to provide retail investors the consistency and discipline demanded by the firm's institutional clients.
Wilshire's "style investing" approach, based on the Wilshire 5000 Index, is purely quantitative and eliminates the potential for style "drift." Once stocks do not meet specific quantitative criteria for meeting growth or value definitions, they are eliminated from their respective portfolios.
In addition to producing the Wilshire 5000 Index, the best known broad market index consisting of all publicly traded US stocks, Wilshire manages approximately $9 billion in assets. The firm also serves as an investment management consultant to some of the world's largest public and private pension funds. Finally, Wilshire makes many of the portfolio analytical tools used by other major money managers.
(a) Some of the mutual funds within this database are not large company growth funds and therefore the S&P 500 may not be an appropriate benchmark for these funds. However, the S&P 500 is a standard benchmark used to measure mutual funds in general.
(b) For more complete information about the Wilshire Target funds, including fees and expenses, please obtain a prospectus by calling 1-888-200-6796. Please read it carefully before you invest or send money. The Wilshire funds are distributed by First Data Distributors, Inc. Investment return and principal value of mutual funds will vary with market conditions so that shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Individuals cannot directly invest in the Wilshire 5000 Index or any index.