The Best Active Growth Stock ETFs to Buy

After being “in” for so long, growth stocks are part of the “out” crowd in 2026. A growing skepticism around artificial intelligence-related stocks has driven investors away from growth stocks and toward value stocks instead.

As a result, growth stocks look more attractive today than they have in a long while, says Morningstar Chief US Market Strategist Dave Sekera. “Following the selloff in technology stocks, which are overweight in the growth category, growth stocks have become increasingly undervalued,” he explains.

Investors who own core stock mutual funds or exchange-traded funds—especially those tracking a broad market index such as the S&P 500 or Wilshire 5000 Index—already have exposure to growth stocks. They likely don’t need to add more growth stocks to their portfolios, as they already have plenty.

However, some investors may think growth stocks are the place to be, and they’d like to tilt their portfolios toward that style. For such investors, there are many fine growth stock ETFs to choose from.

What Are Growth Stock ETFs?

Growth stock ETFs invest primarily in US companies that are projected to grow faster than the market. The definition of growth is based on fast growth (high growth rates for earnings, sales, book value, and cash flow) and high valuations (high price ratios and low dividend yields). Many of these ETFs focus on companies in rapidly expanding industries. This group covers a range of market caps, encompassing the large-growth, mid-cap growth, and small-growth Morningstar Categories. Some growth stock ETFs are passive investments, meaning they track indexes and do not have managers actively making stock-picking decisions. Active growth stock ETFs, meanwhile, are run by managers who actively pick stocks.

This list focuses on the latter: Top growth stock ETFs run by active managers.

The 12 Best Active Growth Stock ETFs to Buy in 2026

To find the best active growth stock ETFs to buy, we screened for those earning a

of Bronze, Silver, or Gold with 100% analyst coverage. All the ETFs on the list fall into the small-growth, mid-growth, or large-growth and have at least $100 million in assets. All data is as of March 23, 2026.

1. Brown Advisory Sustainable Growth ETF BASG
2. Capital Group Growth ETF CGGR
3. Fidelity Blue Chip Growth ETF FBCG
4. Harbor Long-Term Growers ETF WINN
5. JPMorgan Active Growth ETF JGRO
6. Janus Henderson Small/Mid Cap Growth Alpha ETF JSMD
7. MFS Active Growth ETF MFSG
8. Natixis Loomis Sayles Focused Growth ETF LSGR
9. Neuberger Small-Mid Cap ETF NBSM
10. Principal Focused Blue Chip ETF BCHP
11. T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth ETF TCHP
12. T. Rowe Price Growth Stock ETF TGRW

Morningstar expects the highly rated growth stock ETFs on this list to outperform their peers over a full market cycle. But even though all the ETFs on our list invest in growth stocks, they practice different strategies, and therefore behave differently from each other. Investors need to do some homework to understand exactly what a particular ETF invests in before buying.

Here’s a quick look at each of the best active growth stock ETFs. Be sure to review an ETF’s complete report for more details.

Brown Advisory Sustainable Growth ETF

• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Large Growth
• Morningstar Medalist Rating
  : Bronze

Brown Advisory Sustainable Growth (available as a US mutual fund, an Irish UCITS, and an exchange-traded fund) has established managers who effectively blend growth-stock investing with environmental, social, and governance thinking in ways that should help the strategy through a recent rough patch. That said, changes to Morningstar’s assessment of excess return opportunity mean that many of this strategy’s Morningstar Medalist Ratings have changed with this update, even in the absence of substantial changes to pillar ratings or fund costs.

Managers Karina Funk and David Powell are a suitable pairing here. Funk joined Brown Advisory in 2009 when it acquired her Boston-based, ESG-focused employer. She leads Brown Advisory’s sustainable investing efforts. Powell, based at the firm’s Baltimore headquarters since his 1999 arrival, is close to Brown Advisory’s central research team. Together, the pair has run versions of this strategy since 2010, well before ESG got on many investors’ radars.

Much of the strategy relies on classic growth-stock investment principles, such as finding companies with durable, defensible business models. But a key insight comes from ESG analysis—namely, that sustainability efforts such as reduced resource consumption or improved employer/employee relations often make businesses better and can drive their share prices higher. Funk and Powell call these traits “sustainable business advantages,” and every company in their 30- to 40-stock portfolio must have one.

The managers are staying true to their principles while evolving in the face of challenges. Cautiously lifting an internal cap on individual position sizes to 10% from 5% in mid-2023 has helped them better show their conviction in major Russell 1000 Growth Index constituents such as Nvidia and Microsoft. They’ve kept other portfolio characteristics intact while handling recent outflows. And they’re catering to more investors with a new ETF run just like the mutual fund.

The US large-cap growth space is tough for many active managers. After shining for many years, this strategy has taken some hits recently, but its strengths—its team and process—are still intact. It’s a fine option at the right price.

Read Morningstar’s full report on the Brown Advisory Sustainable Growth ETF.

Capital Group Growth ETF

• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Large Growth
• Morningstar Medalist Rating
  : Silver

Capital Group Growth ETF’s solid management team, robust research support, and flexible approach make it a worthwhile option in the competitive large-growth Morningstar Category.

In 2022, Capital Group, the parent of American Funds, launched its first tranches of active exchange-traded funds, including this one, which have some of the same characteristics as the firm’s long-standing mutual funds. Like those, this strategy uses the firm’s characteristic multimanager approach and is in the hands of firm veterans. Seven named managers run individual sleeves here, each with at least 19 years of experience at the firm, and each has the latitude to pursue their best ideas. Alan Wilson heads up the strategy and has more than 35 years of investment experience, serving as a manager here since 2014.

While outperforming the Russell 1000 Growth Index category benchmark can be tough, this strategy offers a broad, flexible approach that should help. The managers aim to diversify across sectors and companies and can invest in overseas firms that derive notable revenue from the US. As the index has become more concentrated with companies such as Apple and Microsoft, each accounting for more than 10% of the index, the strategy wasn’t as top-heavy and chock-full of technology companies as the growth index as of March 2025. Yet the managers can express large bets relative to the index because of the fund’s nondiversified status.

This strategy has benefited from a complementary mix of managers. While this ETF has a short track record, it’s similar to a variable-insurance series offering, American Funds IS Growth 1. Since Wilson joined the strategy in May 2014 through March 2025, the series’ 15.5% annualized gain bested the S&P 500’s 12.5% (its broad-market prospectus benchmark) and the Russell 1000 Growth Index’s 15.3%. (The ETF has similar fees to the insurance vehicle.) Early on, the fund benefited from manager Andraz Razen’s long-term conviction in Tesla. Recently, multiple managers had sizable bets on Meta Platforms, while others’ views on gig-economy plays such as Uber Technologies and Doordash or turnaround plays like Royal Caribbean also helped. In the first quarter of 2025, the strategy lost less than the growth index, thanks in part to its technology underweighting, but it did lose more than the S&P 500.

This ETF’s 0.39% net expense ratio places it among the large-growth category’s cheapest actively managed funds, and its structure is more tax-advantaged than a mutual fund, making it a solid option.

Read Morningstar’s full report on the Capital Group Growth ETF.

Fidelity Blue Chip Growth ETF

• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Large Growth
• Morningstar Medalist Rating
  : Bronze

Fidelity Blue Chip Growth stands tall on the strength of its bold bets and seasoned leadership. Yet, its reliance on a market enthused with artificial intelligence beneficiaries leaves it exposed if the mood shifts.

A consistent overweighting in semiconductors has helped earn the fund one of the large-growth Morningstar Category’s best results over the past decade. A USD 10,000 investment in its no-load share class on Feb. 1, 2016, would have grown to nearly USD 65,000 by Jan. 31, 2026, well above the roughly USD 55,000 in a fund tracking the Russell 1000 Growth Index (the category’s benchmark). Few other funds managed to beat the index over that span. The portfolio’s semiconductor stake, which is dominated by sizable overweightings in Nvidia and Marvell Technology, recently amounted to roughly 24% of assets—more than the index’s 22% and average peer’s 18% or so.

Nvidia and Marvell are riskier than most. Although both enjoy sound balance sheets, a slip in spending on AI infrastructure could send their shares plummeting. Their businesses have historically been prone to boom-and-bust cycles that have rocked their share prices. Indeed, Marvell plunged by one-fifth in 2025 as the index climbed by around the same amount. And supply chain disruptions—whether stemming from trade tensions, export controls, or geopolitical conflicts—are other shared risks.

But this strategy has never been tame under manager Sonu Kalra. He builds a portfolio of 200-plus stocks that embraces companies with higher-than-average expected growth rates, at times paltry earnings relative to their share prices, and significant price fluctuations. These features position the strategy to thrive when investors’ risk appetites grow, but they also set the stage for its underperformance when markets stumble or when value stocks—those with low price multiples and growth rates or high dividend yields—are in favor. It is an investment style that resembles other well-run Fidelity funds.

The strategy’s present size poses challenges. It is one of the world’s largest actively managed large-growth strategies, with more than USD 120 billion in assets across all vehicles. That bulk makes it difficult for Kalra to invest meaningfully in the smaller-cap prospects that drove much of the strategy’s past success. Still, that doesn’t necessarily relegate the strategy to mediocrity. Kalra’s position moves tend to be gradual, and analytical support from Fidelity’s deep analyst bench helps in overseeing the fund’s sprawling portfolio.

Read Morningstar’s full report on the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth ETF.

Harbor Long-Term Growers ETF

• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Large Growth
• Morningstar Medalist Rating
  : Bronze

Harbor Long-Term Growers ETF is an appealing high-conviction, high-growth offering.

Subadvisor Jennison Associates’ management roster has kicked off a transition but remains in capable hands. Jennison stalwart Kathleen McCarragher will reduce her management duties from the start of 2026 before retiring from the firm later that year. The firm added consumer analyst Owuraka Koney as a named portfolio manager effective July 1, 2025, for additional support. Koney joins Blair Boyer and Natasha Kuhlkin in management. Boyer possesses 40-plus years of industry experience and is closer to the end of his career, which makes Loney’s addition prudent as the firm needs to build out the management team to support Kuhlkin in the future. The size of Jennison’s management team and its team-based approach help ensure occasional changes aren’t too disruptive. The managers have solid support from a 13-member analyst team; its members have a good blend of experience.

The team’s superior research underpins this relatively concentrated, high-growth approach. It targets market-leading companies with strong growth expectations from durable competitive advantages. This tends to narrow the focus to economically sensitive sectors such as technology, communications services, and consumer cyclicals. This 70- to 90-stock portfolio is like its sibling Harbor Capital Appreciation mutual fund, but with some differences. Though this exchange-traded fund holds more stocks, its nondiversified status allows flexibility to take larger positions in higher-conviction names at the top of the portfolio. Its additional 15-20 positions relative to its sibling are typically held in the portfolio’s tail and consist of mid-cap names. The detailed long-term-oriented research process has led to the early identification of big secular winners that have ultimately paid off in the end.

Much like its longer-running mutual fund sibling strategy, the performance profile can be a bumpy ride but likely to reward the long-term investor. After launching in February 2022, it struggled against its Russell 1000 Growth Index prospectus benchmark during that year’s selloff but has rebounded well through June 2025. This is consistent with the sibling fund that has generally thrived in most market rallies but tended to struggle during downturns.

Read Morningstar’s full report on the Harbor Long-Term Growers ETF.

JPMorgan Active Growth ETF

• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Large Growth
• Morningstar Medalist Rating
  : Silver

JPMorgan Active Growth ETF benefits from experienced managers and a tenured and stable supporting cast, plying two proven approaches.

Launched in August 2022, this strategy splits assets equally between all-cap, best ideas JPMorgan Growth Advantage and large-cap JPMorgan Large Cap Growth. The managers simplistically rebalance every two weeks to maintain a 50/50 split.

Veteran managers Giri Devulapally and Felise Agranoff are at the helm here. Devulapally has overseen Large Cap Growth since mid-2005 and brings more than three decades of industry experience. While Agranoff only recently took charge of Growth Advantage in March 2024, she has been with the firm for more than 20 years and managed JPMorgan Mid-Cap Growth since 2015. Both managers have an experienced and stable growth-focused team of large- and mid/small-cap analysts. This exchange-traded fund simply pairs each portfolio together, with no adjustments from the managers to the combined portfolio.

The managers employ distinct approaches built on solid fundamental research, with some common tenets. Devulapally leans more on price momentum, typically waiting for the market to validate his research before making notable position increases. He’s adept at building and trimming stakes based on momentum signals without blindly following trends. Agranoff’s approach complements this well, using a more balanced framework, with less emphasis on momentum. She also has greater market-cap flexibility, which has helped Growth Advantage identify strong small- and mid-caps (such as Tesla in 2011 and Netflix in 2013) before they ascended into the large-cap territory.

Since its August 2022 debut, this ETF has posted impressive results versus its peers. Through November 2025, it delivered a 21.2% annualized return easily topping the typical large-growth category peer norm’s 18.8% return but lagging the Russell 1000 Growth Index’s 22.8% gain. Its results have typically performed as intended as an average of the two strategies; however, the ETF slightly lagged both funds during the first nine months of 2025 but has bounced back recently. This shows that the simple two-week rebalancing scheme can lead to short-term performance distortions, but it should level out over longer periods.

Read Morningstar’s full report on the JPMorgan Active Growth ETF.

Janus Henderson Small/Mid Cap Growth Alpha ETF

• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Small Growth
• Morningstar Medalist Rating
  : Bronze

The Janus Henderson Small/Mid-Cap Growth Alpha ETF earns an Above Average Process rating for its quality-oriented approach; its People rating is Average.

Lead manager Benjamin Wang brings decent experience; he has run exchange-traded funds for most of his career. In 2012, he joined VelocityShares, an ETF provider that Janus Henderson acquired in 2014, and he has managed this fund since its launch in February 2016. In 2024, Zoey Zhu joined as comanager. She and Wang get support from a three-person technology team to help implement the approach. The team is adequately resourced, but it’s on the smaller side relative to other quantitative groups.

That said, the fund’s approach of focusing on profitable, high-quality businesses is strong. This tactic has been a reliable way to beat the Russell 2000 Growth category benchmark and Russell 2500 Growth prospectus benchmark as both consist of many unprofitable, low-quality businesses that, on average, tend to underperform higher-quality ones over the long term. The managers use a quantitative model to rank stocks by quality, valuation, capital efficiency, and business momentum factors. They build a portfolio of the highest-ranked stocks while limiting sector deviations from the prospectus benchmark. The portfolio stands out for quality metrics—like return on equity, return on assets, return on invested capital, and net profit margin—typically well above those of the benchmarks and most rivals.

Long-term performance has been strong. From the fund’s launch in February 2016 through February 2026, its 13.6% annualized gain beat both benchmarks and the small-growth Morningstar Category average by solid margins. Risk-adjusted returns (measured by Sharpe and Sortino ratios) were superior as well. That said, the fund will struggle in speculative markets when quality is out of favor, which was the case in the low-quality rally starting from the Russell 2000 Growth Index’s recent low in April 2025. From then to its peak in January 2026, the fund’s 40.1% cumulative gain lagged the index by about 14 percentage points. Greater exposure to mid-caps (which substantially lagged small caps) also hurt.

Still, long-term investors should continue to be rewarded.

Read Morningstar’s full report on the Janus Henderson Small/Mid Cap Growth Alpha ETF.

MFS Active Growth ETF

• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Large Growth
• Morningstar Medalist Rating
  : Silver

MFS Active Growth ETF is a new way to access large-cap growth exposure from MFS. While there are some unique aspects to this portfolio, it benefits from many of the same advantages as its mutual fund cousins, namely, MFS’ talented research organization and a sensible, long-term investment process.

This exchange-traded fund is already undergoing a management transition despite its December 2024 launch, though it is still in good hands. In June 2025, the firm announced that manager Eric Fischman would step off the strategy in June 2026 to focus solely on his other charges, and concurrently named Tim Dittmer as comanager, giving the team a 12-month transition period. Going forward, Dittmer will oversee this portfolio alongside comanager Brad Mak, and the two are right out of central casting for managing a technology-heavy large-growth portfolio. Both spent their early careers at MFS as technology analysts, and Dittmer was recently the technology sector leader and covered many of the index’s key names. Technology has been a weak spot in recent years at MFS, particularly in large-blend and large-growth funds, so Mak and Dittmer’s experience in the space positions this strategy nicely.

Despite the management changes, the strategy’s investing framework will remain intact. It seeks companies poised for long-term growth stemming from durable competitive advantages. This team is generally more willing to buy stocks with higher price multiples than peers at MFS, but the managers do not chase speculative growth. This ETF launched as a nondiversified portfolio, so it has the flexibility to compete with a highly concentrated index. It is not a clone of the MFS Growth mutual fund to ensure that it’s viewed by the market as a distinct strategy, though it is purposefully run in a very similar fashion. This portfolio is more concentrated in terms of name count, and the managers will swap out similar companies in instances when they offer comparable value. For instance, the ETF owns Marriott International while the mutual fund owns Hilton. Over the long-run, the ETF and mutual fund should deliver similar results, though.

This ETF does not have a long track record, but the related MFS Growth has competitive long-run results with the index and regularly beats the Morningstar Category average, though more recent results have disappointed.

Read Morningstar’s full report on the MFS Active Growth ETF.

Natixis Loomis Sayles Focused Growth ETF

• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Large Growth
• Morningstar Medalist Rating
  : Gold

Natixis Loomis Sayles Focused Growth ETF’s ties to another successful strategy make its future promising.

The exchange-traded fund’s pedigree is impressive. Manager Aziz Hamzaogullari developed a patient, principled approach to large-growth equity investing in the mid-2000s. After a few successful years elsewhere, he joined Loomis Sayles in 2010 and brought his investment philosophy and three analysts with him. They then began a strong run on Loomis Sayles Growth, a US mutual fund, which continues to this day. This ETF, which uses a variation of the mutual fund’s approach, launched in June 2023.

Both strategies follow key tenets. Hamzaogullari and his team believe in long-term, price-conscious investing. They seek—and find—companies with obvious competitive strengths, which, in turn, generate a lot of cash. Extensive, careful research—usually over months at a time—informs their decisions. Even the team itself is a strength. Hamzaogullari has added five more analysts to his original three, and his time spent training and developing each member has resulted in team stability.

Yet, the ETF differs from its mutual fund cousin in certain respects. The ETF typically owns a subset of the mutual fund’s holdings—roughly 20–25 stocks out of the mutual fund’s 30–40. Unlike the mutual fund, it won’t sprinkle in non-US stocks. It can also take larger individual positions—up to 12% or 8 percentage points greater than the stock’s portion of the Russell 1000 Growth Index. That flexibility could be an advantage when large benchmark constituents—such as Nvidia—lead markets higher, because this strategy could at least match or exceed those stocks’ weightings in the index. But it also increases the risk that single stocks drive performance.

So far, though, those differences have worked to the ETF’s advantage. It avoided recent weakness in Novo Nordisk, a non-US holding in the mutual fund, while it capitalized on relatively large positions in Alphabet, Netflix, Meta Platforms—let alone a sizable position in semiconductor leader Nvidia. The trick is continuing to manage these positions—and their risks—effectively, and Hamzaogullari’s history suggests he’s worthy of trust.

Read Morningstar’s full report on the Natixis Loomis Sayles Focused Growth ETF.

Neuberger Small-Mid Cap ETF

• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Mid-Cap Growth
• Morningstar Medalist Rating
  : Silver

While Neuberger Berman Small-Mid Cap ETF has struggled since its launch, there is reason to stay the course.

The team’s wealth of experience inspires confidence. Strategy stalwart Bob D’Alelio and longtime team members Brett Reiner and Greg Spiegel, share responsibility for this portfolio. Though the exchange-traded fund launched in March 2024, the trio has been involved for much of the separate account’s history, which dates to January 1994. Veteran Judy Vale was also a listed manager since its inception but stepped away from day-to-day decision-making and into a new portfolio strategist role in December 2023. Vale and D’Alelio had run the strategy together since January 1996. The trio is highly experienced in managing money across market cycles and has five dedicated analysts as solid support.

The approach’s disciplined focus on profitable, high-quality companies with reasonable valuations has proved rewarding over market cycles. Its managers seek to own 45-60 stocks whose underlying businesses have low debt, high returns on assets, and defensible competitive advantages. Their analysts study at least 10 years of prospects’ financial statements to find growing free cash flow and assess how it’s used. This means the portfolio eschews more speculative fare that doesn’t meet the managers’ profitability standards. They then build new positions gradually, making sure their thesis is correct, and will hold for long periods and exit gradually as the market cap of their winners grows.

This strategy boasts a similar return profile to its sibling strategy: absolute returns that often lag in rising markets owing to the portfolio’s lower beta (a measure of volatility relative to the benchmark) but reliable downside protection during market declines. That has meant it has struggled since the ETF launched. It has lagged the Russell Midcap Growth Index Morningstar Category benchmark by 15.8 percentage points, as well as its broader, more appropriate Russell 2500 Index prospectus benchmark by 8.1 percentage points. Factor exposures explain a portion of this underperformance, according to Morningstar’s risk model. The market has embraced volatility and momentum and larger growthier companies, while quality hasn’t been rewarded. That said, while the team understandably avoided some high-flying stocks, it has also had some errors of commission. Still, investors should take solace in the managers’ broader track record and hold steady.

Read Morningstar’s full report on the Neuberger Small-Mid Cap ETF.

Principal Focused Blue Chip ETF

• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Large Growth
• Morningstar Medalist Rating
  : Silver

Principal Focused Blue Chip—available as an exchange-traded fund or in separate accounts—is the highest-conviction offering of Principal’s Aligned investors team. Even acknowledging its risks and the challenges of competing in the large-growth Morningstar Category, the strategy deserves a close look.

The principles used here are proven. For more than 25 years, manager Bill Nolin has sought companies with owner-operators, or executives who think like owners, because they tend to act with the long term in mind. If such leaders are major shareholders, then their interests are more aligned with those of investors—hence, the name of Nolin’s team: Aligned Investors.

Nolin’s greatest success has come with mid-cap stocks. His Principal MidCap is among the best mid-growth strategies. Over time, some of that offering’s top mid-cap holdings have become large-cap companies—and that, plus the belief that the general approach should work just as well higher up the market-cap ladder, led to the launch of Principal Blue Chip in 2012 and, three years later, this strategy, which focuses on Blue Chip’s top 20-25 holdings. (The strategy first launched in separate accounts; the ETF debuted in 2023.)

This strategy certainly resembles the Aligned team’s other offerings in many good ways. The portfolio is loaded with high-quality, profitable companies. Nolin regularly invests confidently and for the long term, so cash on hand is minimal, and turnover is modest.

But a few persistent features have put this strategy somewhat at odds with the broader market in recent years. Mega-cap stocks, particularly the so-called Magnificent Seven—Alphabet, Amazon.com, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla—have come to dominate the Russell 1000 Growth Index. As of late 2025, this strategy owned five of them (Apple and Tesla are the exceptions), and while Nolin can take big positions in this portfolio, he’s chosen to be mostly underweight semiconductor firm Nvidia. That decision has kept the portfolio light on tech stocks generally and on one of the market’s biggest winners specifically, and it has weighed on returns as a result.

Nvidia’s rise is a relatively recent phenomenon, though, and Nolin likes to play the long game. He and his team are good at it. Even if it looks a little weak at times, this is a fundamentally sound strategy.

Read Morningstar’s full report on the Principal Focused Blue Chip ETF.

T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth ETF

• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Large Growth
• Morningstar Medalist Rating
  : Silver

When accessed through vehicles with competitive fees, the T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth strategy remains one of the better choices in a deep category, thanks to the depth and breadth of its research effort and capable portfolio manager.

A drop in the Morningstar Medalist Rating of some of the share classes isn’t attributable to reduced conviction in the strategy’s People or Process ratings but instead reflects a change in the way Morningstar calculates the excess return opportunity for funds.

This strategy’s core principles have remained intact over the years, but recent market turmoil highlights some evolutions. As US growth stocks nosedived through early April 2025, the US mutual fund’s no-load share outperformed the Russell 1000 Growth Index for the year-to-date period. That hasn’t been the case historically. During past growth-stock market routs, such as in 2022, the fund has lagged its benchmark due to greater exposure to fast-growing companies, which can be more susceptible to changes in market sentiment or expectations. Following the bear market in 2022, manager Paul Greene pledged to keep a tighter leash on that stylistic tilt while also giving greater consideration to stocks with more moderate-growth rates that could offer ballast. The changes have been incremental, though they’ve proved effective during their first test, which highlights good execution of the new gameplan.

Despite the volatility, Greene remains steadfast and hasn’t traded much. He doesn’t believe his portfolio is overexposed to the risk that tariffs present relative to his benchmark and is content to focus on the stock-specific drivers that he can predict, as opposed to government policy.

Investors here should still expect a focus on high-quality, fast-growing large-cap stocks, the occasional mid-cap, as well as a smattering of emerging private companies for versions that allow such investments. Mega-caps, especially those that comprise the so-called “Magnificent Seven” (Alphabet, Amazon.com, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla), are featured here, though not all are favored by Greene. As of March 31, 2025, the portfolio remained underweight Apple but overweighted Amazon.com, Nvidia, and Microsoft. Yet, its single largest bet, Carvana, highlights a way in which it stands out. Greene owned the stock heading into 2022’s disastrous year, which saw shares decline from over USD 350 to single digits. Greene sold his shares at the end of 2022 but repurchased them in 2023, believing that the company’s business model was still a good one. Investors have since agreed, and the stock has returned to near its old highs. Such calls helped propel the fund back to the top quartile of its large-growth Morningstar Category peer group over the trailing three-year period ending May 31.

Read Morningstar’s full report on the T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth ETF.

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T. Rowe Price Growth Stock ETF

• Morningstar Category
  : US Fund Large Growth
• Morningstar Medalist Rating
  : Silver

T. Rowe Price Growth Stock has the right resources and framework to give its cheaper vehicles a chance to outperform.

Lead manager Jim Stillwagon officially settled in as lead manager in August 2025, marking a new era for this USD 100 billion-plus strategy as it looks to regain its luster. Investors have steadily redeemed assets from the mutual fund as performance fell behind beginning in 2021. Stillwagon is charged with turning things around. While he’s got a lot on his plate, he has the right background to succeed. He previously managed T. Rowe Price Communications and Technology to good results over a roughly five-year stretch beginning in early 2020 and joined here with strong knowledge of many of the key holdings that anchor this portfolio.

A broad analyst team and network of other talented managers across T. Rowe Price Associates’ research platform continue to confer an advantage versus most rivals. While the analyst team has seen a few rounds of layoffs as the firm has faced commercial pressures, it remains a diverse and powerful resource, with dedicated coverage of the various key industry verticals such as software and semiconductors. Stillwagon also retains a partner in associate manager Eric DeVilbiss, who remains an important collaborator.

Stillwagon’s investment framework focuses on a company’s moat, management, the nature of T. Rowe’s proprietary insight, and share price. Many growth investors share elements of this framework, but it’s the details that count in the large-cap growth market, where companies enjoy heavy Wall Street coverage and are widely owned by informed institutional buyers. To that end, T. Rowe’s research specialization, decades of institutional knowledge, and private market presence all give it a better shot than most at eking out an informational edge. Additionally, the mutual fund’s status as a nondiversified vehicle gives it the flexibility to overweight the benchmark’s largest constituents, an advantage versus rival vehicles that cannot.

While it’s early in Stillwagon’s tenure, preliminary signs point to a portfolio more anchored in mega-caps, US-domiciled businesses, and lower benchmark differentiation. Stillwagon says he wants to be as intentional about stocks he doesn’t own as those he does. That’s meant narrowing underweightings in stocks he isn’t excited about, like Tesla, so long as they have big upside potential. Holding less in Tesla and Apple was one of a few key reasons the fund’s performance lagged in previous years, and Stillwagon is committed to ensuring that a few stocks won’t sink his ship. Even so, he knows he’ll have to take enough risk to beat an extremely difficult benchmark. There are enough data points to suggest those risks have a shot at panning out.

Read Morningstar’s full report on the T. Rowe Price Growth Stock ETF.

How to Find More of the Best Growth Stock ETFs to Buy for the Long Term

Given their high Morningstar Medalist Ratings, we expect the top-rated ETFs on our list to outperform over a full market cycle. That being said, investors may want to expand their search beyond this list, using parameters that matter to them. Here are more ways to find more of the best growth stock ETFs and mutual funds:

• Use the Morningstar Investor screener to create your own list of funds to investigate further.
• Explore Morningstar Medalist funds on our Best Investments page.
• Read our latest ETF insights and analysis on Morningstar.com.