Why We Upgraded This Global Large-Growth Fund to Gold

Increased conviction in Baillie Gifford Long Term Global Growth’s BGLTX team and well-structured and intensive research process drove upgrades for its People and Process Pillars to High from Above Average, boosting its Morningstar Medalist Rating to Gold from Silver.

This eight-person team includes some strong and proven growth investors who have the right temperament for true long-term investing. The team members are analysts first and display clear intellectual engagement and motivation to find growth companies of the future. Baillie Gifford partner and team founder Mark Urquhart has been on the strategy since its 2004 inception as a separately managed account, and partner John MacDougall joined in 2015. Managers Gemma Barkhuizen and Michael Pye have supported them since early 2022.

This team uses a relatively unstructured and flexible research process to find extreme, long-term growth outliers. Managers tap a variety of information sources, including academics, private company management, and other industry participants. Analysts conduct original in-depth research on only five to 10 companies each year, allowing them to develop deep expertise. The team pays attention to diversification but weights holdings by their attractiveness regardless of their industry, geography, or sector.

Key Morningstar Metrics for Baillie Gifford Long Term Global Growth

Morningstar Medalist Rating: Gold

Process Pillar: High

People Pillar: High

Parent Pillar: Above Average

Additional Personnel

Complementary managers and a distinctive approach earned Diamond Hill Long-Short DIAYX a People Pillar upgrade to Above Average from Average, which boosted the Medalist Rating of its cheapest share class to Bronze from Neutral. Other share classes remained Neutral.

Ever since managers Chris Bingaman and Nate Palmer began leading this strategy in 2018, they have relied on the firm’s nearly 20-person central analyst team for long and short ideas, even though the researchers spend most of their time on ideas for the firm’s solid long-only funds. Over the past few years, however, the firm has added personnel to the long-short team. In January 2023, Diamond Hill assigned Ryan Garcar, who has been with the firm since 2019, to research short ideas for the strategy full-time. Then, in 2024, the firm hired Dylan Ellerbrock from a short-selling research firm to assist here. They give Palmer and Bingaman much-needed support and have already contributed names to the portfolio.

Key Morningstar Metrics for Diamond Hill Long-Short

Morningstar Medalist Rating: Bronze

Process Pillar: Average

People Pillar: Above Average

Parent Pillar: Above Average

A Bold and Distinctive Approach

Baird Chautauqua International Growth CCWIX approach earned a Process Pillar upgrade to Above Average from Average, lifting the Medalist Rating of its institutional share class to Silver from Bronze.

This team continues to employ the quality-driven and focused growth process that it always has. It looks for companies with durable competitive advantages and prefers companies with conservative accounting, healthy balance sheets, and shareholder alignment, while considering the impact of regional and currency exposures. The team assesses attractive valuations by comparing future cash flow estimates to a company’s current cost of business. The team prefers higher-quality growers.

The resulting 25-35 stock portfolio comes with significant risks, but the process has earned strong long-term results, and Morningstar’s confidence in it has increased.

Key Morningstar Metrics for Baird Chautauqua International Growth

Morningstar Medalist Rating: Silver

Process Pillar: Above Average

People Pillar: Above Average

Parent Pillar: High