A Value Focus Clips Returns for This Mairs & Power Growth Fund

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There's more to the Mairs & Power Growth Fund (MPGFX) than its name implies. The managers favor firms with above-average earnings growth. But a durable, competitive position in their market — "a number-one or number-two position and gaining share," says comanager Andrew Adams — and a reasonable stock price matter even more.

That valuation focus has been a handicap recently, as pricey stocks in companies with little in the way of profits have led the market. Over the past 12 months, Mairs & Power Growth, a member of the Kiplinger 25, our favorite no-load mutual funds, has returned 5%, trailing its peers (large blend funds) and the broad market.

Stakes in two companies are partly to blame. Top 10 holding UnitedHealth Group (UNH)is down 45% over the past year. Increased medical costs in the health care company's Medicare Advantage business "shocked us," and it will take time "to right the ship," says Adams, who says he has been trimming the fund's stake.

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But he's holding on, for now, to shares in Fiserv (FI), which have plummeted 72% over the past 12 months. The fintech firm, a provider of payments technology, slashed its profit forecast for the year, amid a sharp slowdown in growth and concerns about the firm's Clover payments platform.

On top of that, says Adams, the company's new chief executive said that a cyclical slowdown in Argentina, which had been a big contributor to the firm's growth in recent fiscal years, would crimp future results.

But Fiserv is still a top-two player in its field. Plus, a new executive team and an action plan for the future are in place. So he's staying put.

Over the past decade, the fund's hefty slug of upper-Midwest firms has slimmed down, thanks in part to the fund beefing up its holdings in tech stocks, which now make up one-third of the portfolio. But top holdings Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon.com (AMZN) haven't offset poor performance in other parts of the portfolio.

Over the past three years, the fund's nearly 17% annualized return lags the 21% gain in the S&P 500.

Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine, a monthly, trustworthy source of advice and guidance. Subscribe to help you make more money and keep more of the money you make here.

Nellie joined Kiplinger in August 2011 after a seven-year stint in Hong Kong. There, she worked for the Wall Street Journal Asia, where as lifestyle editor, she launched and edited Scene Asia, an online guide to food, wine, entertainment and the arts in Asia. Prior to that, she was an editor at Weekend Journal, the Friday lifestyle section of the Wall Street Journal Asia. Kiplinger isn't Nellie's first foray into personal finance: She has also worked at SmartMoney (rising from fact-checker to senior writer), and she was a senior editor at Money.