JPMorgan Large Cap Value Fund Class I HLQVX

JPMorgan Large Cap Value features a seasoned lead investor who plies a disciplined, sensible strategy, earning Above Average People and Process ratings.

The strategy has been middling the past three years in a challenging market, but over lead manager Scott Blasdell’s full tenure, it’s been solid. From April 2013 through August 2026, the institutional share class has climbed 12.6% annualized, thumping the typical large-value Morningstar Category peer’s 10.8% return and beating the 11.6% Russell 1000 Value Index’s gain.

Blasdell has seen enough market cycles to separate signal from noise. He came to J.P. Morgan in 1999 just in time for the dot.com bust and also experienced the 2007-09 global financial crisis. During his close to 30 years in the industry, he has seen ebullient runups turn into massive wipeouts, which have helped him to stick to his process and lean on valuation. That’s what he’s done here since taking charge 13 years ago, currently with the help of comanager John Piccard, three dedicated analysts, and JPMorgan’s large and seasoned core analyst group.

Blasdell’s current conundrum is a twist: Technology companies have become a big and shifting part of the Russell 1000 Value Index, especially at the top. There have long been tech firms in the index, typically those deemed outdated—such as digital storage. In the first half of 2026, because of the demands of the artificial intelligence buildout, some of those digital storage stocks posted huge gains: Sandisk 857%, Micron Technology 394%, and Western Digital 271%. Then, at the end of June, the Russell 1000 Value rebalanced, booting many such holdings and replacing their weight with Magnificent Seven stocks: Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft collectively became a 15% stake in early July. A tough comparison to hot returns quickly transformed into striving to manage the risks of such huge firms in the benchmark.

Blasdell and his team have stuck to their knitting. They seek solid companies whose future long-term cash flows are higher than the current stock price suggests. They use six-year normalized earnings for their estimates. In summer 2026, to account for the index changes, Blasdell lifted the weighting of Amazon, which the portfolio already owned, and bought Microsoft, which he says has many ways to win. He made Apple a top holding largely to manage risk but allows that its balance sheet is great.

Correction (Sept. 8, 2026): The text that appeared in the JPM US Large Cap Value report dated Sept. 4, 2026, was incorrect and was for a different fund. The correct text has been inserted here.

This straightforward value strategy earns an Above Average Process rating.

Lead portfolio manager Scott Blasdell asserts that this approach boils down to comparing stock prices with long-term cash flows. Specifically, his team uses six-year estimates of normalized cash flows to rank Russell 1000 Value Index constituents within their sectors, from least to most pricey. Stocks in the two cheapest quintiles qualify for more work. From the start, the emphasis is on a longer time frame than most rivals use.

The team seeks solid companies that the market has punished too much for short-term problems. It examines these stocks’ industries to assess whether they are in temporary slumps or long-term declines. The team also wants to see that a target company’s earnings and margins are improving. And it studies company management, strongly preferring proven or underappreciated leaders with a good history of capital allocation.

The portfolio usually has between 70 and 110 holdings, and the count usually reflects Blasdell’s confidence in the market’s valuation signal. He diversifies more when market pricing seems more optimistic and concentrates into fewer, cheaper names when pessimism reigns—most recently in the 2020 pandemic period. Industry weightings can diverge by up to 10 percentage points from the benchmark’s. Blasdell does see sector and industry allocations as sources of outperformance, believing tilts into undervalued areas can boost returns.

Few managers are as blunt as Scott Blasdell about the strategy’s stock count signaling overall valuation levels. Over the past 10 years, this portfolio has held as few as 68 stocks (in mid-2021) when valuations seemed low and as many as 118 (in early 2025) when they were high. As of July 2026, it held 96—near the average of 93 over that period.

While the holding count signals reasonable market valuations, Blasdell has concerns about the prospectus Russell 1000 Value index’s June rebalancing. The index expelled a slew of tech-related firms, Alphabet and Micron Technology plus many AI beneficiaries (such as Sandisk) totaling more than 12% of the index, while it added Magnificent Seven names Apple and Microsoft, with a combined 9% of the index’s weight, and boosted Amazon by more than 4 percentage points. To account for the index transformation, Blasdell sold off Alphabet, Micron Technology, Sandisk, and more. Meanwhile, he added Apple and bought more Meta and Microsoft in July 2026. He considers most of the hyperscalers to be rather cheap but is less sanguine on Apple—that buy served largely to align the portfolio with the index.

While plenty of moves in the tech area have been risk management, Blasdell made trademark moves further down in the portfolio. He began buying Mondelez in late fall 2025. The food giant had been out of favor; Blasdell believed this was largely because high cocoa prices were crushing its earnings. Blasdell notes that cocoa follows a multiyear cycle while new trees grow, so patient investors should benefit from a headwind turning into a tailwind.

Lead manager Scott Blasdell’s prowess in value fare and strong use of a good analyst team drive an Above Average rating here.

Blasdell became lead manager on this strategy in April 2013, posting strong returns since then. Before coming to J.P. Morgan, he worked on a value team at Wellington Management. He arrived at J.P. Morgan in 1999 as a research analyst covering REITs; after a successful stint as portfolio manager for REIT strategies from 2001 to 2008, he began managing diversified value portfolios such as this one.

Also dedicated to the strategy are portfolio manager John Piccard and analysts Jim Brown, Amod Gautam, and (new addition) Val Perfanov. These four mainly specialize in covering the mid-cap portion of the Russell 1000 Value Index, which J.P. Morgan’s core research team doesn’t cover as thoroughly as large caps. Piccard, who became a named manager here in November 2023, covers industrials and technology. Brown researches basic materials, and Gautam covers consumer names. Perfanov, currently more of a generalist, has previously been a specialist in long-short investing.

Much of the research work comes from J.P. Morgan’s strong, core analyst team. That crew boasts 21 professionals who have been in the industry for an average of 25 years. They provide uniform, long-term, normalized cash flow estimates that allow this team to rank hundreds of stocks based on valuation within sectors. Blasdell trusts them for detailed insights on specific opportunities.

J.P. Morgan continues to build a track record of strong stewardship, supporting a Parent rating upgrade to High from Above Average.

With more than USD 4 trillion in assets under management (including USD 1.3 trillion in money market funds) and a broad reach, J.P. Morgan is among the largest active asset managers in the US, Europe, and Asia. Although some multi-asset offerings have struggled over the past five years, prompting new leadership to make changes to investment teams, its equity and fixed-income teams boast long-tenured portfolio managers who practice repeatable investment processes that have generally produced strong long-term results. Most of its funds are core building blocks with long lifetimes, though its lineup around the world also includes more-specialized options: Two options-based equity-income exchange-traded funds, launched in 2020 and 2022, are now among the firm’s largest. J.P. Morgan has been an early mover in offering active ETFs, having converted 12 of its open-end mutual funds to the structure and launching others. It isn’t always at the forefront of emerging trends. While it has filed registration statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an interval fund and an ETF investing in private markets, it hasn’t yet introduced such an option for all investors, whether on its own or in partnership with another asset manager, unlike some of its closest competitors.

To support the firm’s diverse investment offerings, J.P. Morgan has invested heavily in both portfolio management tools and its client organization. Over the past 10 years, the firm has developed robust proprietary technology with advanced analytics and broad buy-in from investment analysts, portfolio traders, and portfolio managers, all of whom have easy access to the platform. The firm also stands apart for its demonstrated commitment to clients. In the early 2000s, J.P. Morgan began pivoting its engagement with financial advisors to adopt a more consultative approach, supported by its sought-after Guide to the Markets research series that focuses on investor education, not product pitches. This perspective can help clients stay the course, supporting positive investor outcomes.

Incentives reinforce alignment with fundholders. Beginning more than 10 years ago, investment team compensation is tied to three-, five-, and 10-year performance, and portfolio managers must invest at least half of their deferred compensation in J.P. Morgan strategies. Many firms encourage portfolio managers to invest alongside fundholders, but J.P. Morgan goes a step further in requiring client-facing individuals to invest substantial portions of their incentive compensation in the funds.

Although some funds still face high cost hurdles, more than half of share classes charge competitive fees relative to peers.

This strategy’s returns on lead manager Scott Blasdell’s watch have been strong.

The institutional share class climbed 12.6% annualized from April 2013 through August 2026, trouncing the typical large-value peer’s 10.8% return and topping the 11.6% Russell 1000 Value Index’s gain.

The strategy is having a subpar year in 2026 that follows two middling ones, but it’s not a concern. In the first half of the year, its institutional shares lagged the Russell 1000 Value Index by 6.8 percentage points, which seems like a lot. But according to attribution analysis, about half that gap came from stock-picking in technology and the closely related communications sectors. That’s despite the strategy’s ownership of Western Digital (up 273%) and Corning (up 193%); it lacked Applied Materials and Advanced Micro Devices, both up 140%-plus. It’s rare for heavy constituents in the Russell 1000 Value Index to be tech stocks posting triple-digit returns in just six months.

A more persistent shortcoming is the strategy’s high volatility, which might make it difficult for some investors to hold when times are tough. That is, the strategy often trails in downturns; it plummeted 43% in the February to March 2020 pandemic panic, even more than the benchmark’s 38% slide. So, it’s not for those who desire a defensive value strategy.

Investors should be patient. Over rolling five-year periods on Blasdell’s watch, the institutional shares have topped peers 95% of the time and the index 87% of the time.

JPMorgan Large Cap Value I's Prospectus Adjusted Expense Ratio is 0.69% per year. It places it in the middle quintile of the Morningstar US Fund Large Value Category, where the median fee is 0.75% per year. This cost positioning translates into a Medalist Rating Price Score of 0.44, which reflects its relative price positioning within the category. The Price Score ranges from -2.50 (most expensive) to +2.50 (cheapest), with higher scores indicating better cost competitiveness.