There were two changes to our funds list this month: we have moved the Gold-rated TM Crux European Special Situations Fund back into the Large Blend funds list, and we have removed the Kempen European High Dividend Fund from our watchlist as its Morningstar Analyst Rating has been placed under review after the company announced a series of changes to its management team, which affect the firm's dividend strategies.
As a reminder, here are our three fund watchlists, which we check each month to see which stocks the fund managers are buying and selling:
Large Blend
There are two characteristics of Large Blend funds in terms of the stocks most commonly held in their portfolios. First, the strong presence of pharmaceutical stocks. Roche Holding (RO) is present in the top 10 of four of the funds in our list, while Novartis (NOVN) and Sanofi feature in three of the portfolios and AstraZeneca (AZN) in two.
The other characteristic, which is closely linked to the first, is the strong presence of companies with a wide moat in the top 10 holdings of the portfolios. Many of the large healthcare companies have a significant competitive advantage, such as Roche, Novartis, AstraZeneca and Sanofi.
Some of these companies have appeared as new positions the top 10 holdings of some of our funds list. AstraZeneca, for example, is a new addition to the top 10 of the BGF European Equity Income fund, while Roche is new to the Invesco Sustainable Pan European Structured fund.
Other new additions to the funds' top holdings include luxury companies such as L'Oreal (OR) and LVMH (LVMH).
Large Growth
While the main positions of the Large Blend funds are dominated by pharmaceutical companies, in the case of the European Large Growth funds it is the technology sector that has the strongest presence in the top 10 portfolios.
The Dutch company ASML Holdings (ASML), a specialist in photolithography systems used in semiconductor manufacturing, is present in the top 10 of three of our selected funds. Infineon (IFX) and SAP (SAP) feature in two.
However, it is a healthcare company, Novo Nordisk (NOVO), which has a 3-star rating and Wide Moat, that is the most repeated in the top 10 of the portfolios. The stock is present in five of the six funds on our list.
In terms of new stocks, two brewery companies stand out among the top positions: Heineken (HEIA) and Royal Unibrew (OR6Z), in Comgest Growth Europe and BGF European respectively.
Large Value
The portfolios of the best Large Value funds are also dominated by the healthcare sector. While in the case of the Large Growth funds, Novo Nordisk is the most repeated stock in the top 10 positions, in the case of the Large Value funds it is pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which features in three of the six funds in our list.
We can also see that the financial sector is gaining ground both in the list of most repeated stocks (UBS Group is present in two funds) and in the list of new stocks in the top 10, where Compagnie Financière Richemont (CFR) is the second largest holding in the Franklin Mutual European portfolio and Bank of Ireland (BIRG) is sixth position in the AB Eurozone Equity Portfolio.