Good Stock Picking Gives This Primecap Odyssey Fund a Lift
Outsize exposure to an outperforming tech stock and a pair of drugmakers have boosted recent returns for the Primecap Odyssey Growth Fund.
After two lackluster years, the Primecap Odyssey Growth Fund (POGRX) is back. In 2025, the fund gained 33%, beating the S&P 500 Index, which climbed 18%, as well as 99% of all large-company stock funds.
Moreover, the fund did so without a big allocation to communications services and information technology companies, which top the performance charts and dominate the broad market.
Combined, the communications services and information technology sectors account for nearly half of the S&P 500 (they advanced 34% and 24%, respectively, over the past 12 months). But those sectors make up just over one-third of the Primecap portfolio.
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Instead, POGRX, which is a member of the Kiplinger 25, our favorite no-load mutual funds, has hefty exposure to health care (26% of the fund's assets) and industrial stocks (18%). Health shares struggled for much of 2025 but rallied to finish with a 15% gain. And industrials returned 19%, just ahead of the broad market.
The fund's outperformance boils down to good stock picking, not sector exposures. Its best performers in 2025 included tech stocks, of course, such as Micron Technology (MU), which soared 240%.
But a few drug companies — BeOne Medicines (ONC), up 64%, and Rhythm Pharmaceuticals (RYTM), up 91%, for example — and a consumer-sector stock, Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group Holding (BABA), up 75%, pepper the top contributors, too.
Primecap Odyssey Growth managers go their own way
Five managers divide the assets at Odyssey Growth and run their portion independently. But they all focus on growing companies priced at a discount with a catalyst to drive prices higher.
The process tends to create a portfolio that bears little resemblance to the S&P 500. For example, instead of the usual mega-size tech names, the fund's top holdings are pharma giant Eli Lilly (LLY); Xometry (XMTR), a Maryland–based machinery maker; and the aforementioned BeOne Medicines.
Over the past decade, the fund's 14.1% annualized return beat 65% of large-cap stock funds but lagged the 14.8% record of 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.
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