An International-Equity Fund That Dares to be Different

Goldman Sachs GQG Partners International Opportunities GSIMX has the elements in place to continue to outperform, though the road could be bumpy at times.

Manager Rajiv Jain runs the portfolio with an unusual amount of flexibility while remaining true to a central philosophy. Although he leans toward growth, he is not wedded to a certain style-box placement. Jain argues that maintaining a long-term commitment to one style or consistently avoiding certain types of companies is a recipe for underperformance. That doesn’t mean constantly changing course, however. He, two comanagers, and a deputy manager will stick with their choices during weak stretches—as with their huge India overweighting in the latter half of 2024 into early 2025—if they aren’t persuaded that anything meaningful or long-lasting has changed.

This approach has paid off. From Jan. 1, 2017 (shortly after inception), through June 30, 2025, the 12.5% annualized return of its institutional shares handily topped the 7.9% gain of the MSCI ACWI ex US Index (its prospectus benchmark) and the 8.3% gain of the MSCI ACWI ex US Growth Index. The fund also trounced the average returns of the foreign large-growth and foreign large-blend Morningstar Categories. Notably, this fund topped both indexes and category averages by substantial margins in the dismal market of 2022 and the strong growth rally of 2023.

It was such flexibility that enabled the strategy to sidestep a good deal of 2022’s growth-stock carnage. The previous year, Jain and his team drastically raised the portfolio’s stake in energy stocks; it hit 24.2% of assets by year-end 2022 from 1.5% of assets in March 2021. Conversely, they cut the technology weighting to almost nothing from more than 20%. (Later, they partly reversed these moves.) Another bold move: In 2023, when companies in India’s Adani conglomerate plummeted after a short-seller’s scathing report, this fund made financial headlines by initiating positions in several Adani stocks.

While the turnover rate has increased in recent years, the managers aren’t constantly jumping into controversial stocks or making major sector shifts. That’s important. While Jain’s attention-getting shifts have regularly paid off throughout his career, daring moves can easily backfire, no matter how sound the research; investors and markets don’t necessarily behave rationally. And anyone can make mistakes. Jain concedes he miscalculated by top-weighting Novo Nordisk NVO at nearly 8% of assets this past summer, even though he had noticed issues that should have compelled a cut in the weighting. That stock plummeted later in the year. Misplays will happen here. But overall, it’s a standout in its field.