- Business
- Undiscovered Managers Behavioral Value Fund (UBVSX) is an open-end mutual fund that seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in common stocks of small-capitalization U.S. companies exhibiting value characteristics, as determined by its sub-adviser; the portfolio targets stocks with market capitalizations similar to those in the Russell 2000 Value Index, including real estate investment trusts, and applies principles of behavioral finance to capitalize on market overreactions to negative information or underreactions to positive developments, such as significant insider buying, stock repurchases, or attractive fundamentals. The fund offers multiple share classes, including Class I (UBVSX) with a net expense ratio of 0.99%, Class A (UBVAX), Class C (UBVCX), Class L (UBVLX), and various R-share classes (R2: UBVRX, R3: UBVTX, R4: UBVUX, R5: UBVVX, R6: UBVFX); it maintains a diversified portfolio of approximately 97-103 holdings, with top sectors including financials (around 29%), industrials (20%), and materials (12%), and leading positions in companies such as KeyCorp, Citizens Financial Group, Old National Bancorp, Healthpeak Properties, and Graphic Packaging Holding Co.
J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc. serves as the investment adviser, with Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. acting as sub-adviser since inception, led by portfolio managers David Potter (31 years of experience, managing since 2005) and Ryam Lee (12 years, since 2019); the fund, domiciled in the United States, traces its strategy origins to December 1998 via a predecessor fund, with the Class I shares launching on April 30, 2013, and is headquartered under J.P. Morgan Asset Management in the U.S., with total net assets exceeding $9.5 billion as of mid-2025.
In recent developments, the fund has sustained strong performance metrics, including a Morningstar Gold Medalist Rating as of May 2025 and a four-star overall Morningstar rating based on risk-adjusted returns through June 2025, outperforming the Russell 2000 Value Index over 10-year annualized periods by 37 basis points; it continues a contractual fee waiver through October 31, 2025, capping total annual operating expenses at 0.99% (excluding certain items), with the adviser reimbursing affiliated money market fund fees. No major acquisitions, partnerships, funding rounds, or strategic shifts have been reported in the last 1-2 years, though the fund has demonstrated portfolio stability with low turnover (27%) and consistent overweight exposure to yield and contrarian factors relative to small-value peers.