Active managers outperform in 2015

“For many investors, 2015 proved to be a difficult year, and no one likes to lose money,” says Kathleen Wylie, head of Canadian equity research with Russell Investments Canada, in a statement. “But any time you outperform a broad market benchmark is important over the long run, unless of course your focus is absolute return. And assessing recent active management returns, it’s clear: The trend is your friend.”

The median Canadian large-cap manager lost 4.8% in 2015, or 350 basis points (bps) better than the S&P/TSX composite index’s decline of 8.3% for the year. This is an improvement from 2014, when the median manager using annual returns was ahead of the benchmark index by roughly 75 bps.

The fourth quarter (Q4) of 2015 was particularly successful one for active large-cap fund managers, with 82% beating the benchmark index, resulting in the best quarterly performance in two years.

Six of 10 sectors beat the benchmark in Q4 and active fund managers were positioned favourably in seven of 10 sectors. They were, on average, overweighted in the outperforming information technology (IT), consumer staples, industrials and utilities sectors and underweighted in the underperforming sectors of energy, telecommunications and health care.

Growth managers led in 2015 as 92% of them beat the benchmark index, based on annual returns, with the group’s median return being 625 bps ahead of the benchmark. Dividend managers followed, with 81% beating the benchmark, while value managers lagged, as only 67% beat the index.

“Growth managers excelled in the first half of the year with the performance of Valeant Pharmaceuticals [International Inc.] a key factor,” says Wylie. “The stock was up 67% in the first half before crashing 49% in the second half. Valeant’s roller-coaster performance took two-thirds of growth managers who held Valeant on a wild ride in 2015, while only a handful of dividend and value managers held that stock.”

Stocks such as Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., CGI Group Inc. and CCL Industries Inc., which all saw jumps of 25% or higher, were also widely held by growth managers and contributed to their positive performance last year.

Seven of the top 10 contributing stocks in the index for the year were more widely held by growth managers while not one was more widely held by value managers.

However, value managers came out on top in Q4 with 91% beating the index, ahead of dividend-focused managers (81%) and growth managers (75%). Value managers were helped by the fact they were the most underweighted in energy and health care, which were two of the four worst performing sectors, of the three management styles.

The Russell report also looks at the impact of the volatility that took place this past January, in which the S&P/TSX composite index was down by 1.2%, with only five of 10 sectors beating the benchmark, which was down from six of 10 in Q4 2015.

Active large-cap managers were positioned favourably only in four sectors, with their modest overweight to utilities and consumer staples, which outperformed. They were underweighted in materials and health care, which were among the underperforming sectors.

Active large-cap managers had their largest overweighted positions in January to the consumer discretionary, IT and industrials sectors, which all underperformed.