Barron’s chooses funds to face inflation

With consumer prices soaring 8.3% in the 12 months to April, you may be looking for investments that can withstand or benefit from inflation.
With that in mind, Barron’s lists several mutual funds, including DWS RREEF Real Assets (AAAAX) – Get DWS RREEF Real Assets A Report, Fidelity Large Cap Stocks (FLCSX) – Get the Fidelity Large Cap Equity Fund Report and Dodge & Cox Income (DOIX) – Get Dodge & Cox Revenue Report.
As for DWS RREEF, it has a combination of commodities, infrastructure and real estate assets.
The fund earned a Morningstar rating of bronze, the third highest after gold and silver.
“An in-depth team applies a proven approach to real asset investing [at the fund]“, wrote Morningstar analyst Bobby Blue in a comment.
“[Fund manager Evan Rudy] combined [his] the proven bottom-up search for teams with an effective approach to tactical allocation,” Blue said.
“The team takes consensus estimates of the speed of future economic growth and inflation, and allocates accordingly to assets that have performed well under those scenarios in the past.”
The fund may not match the movements of more diversified peers.
“[But] the team has shown the ability to deliver compelling results over a full cycle,” said Blue.
Fidelity Large Cap
Barron’s notes that Fidelity Large Cap holds a larger stake in energy stocks than its peers.
Energy stocks benefit from rising energy prices. This fund also has a Bronze Morningstar Rating.
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It has an “experienced manager” in Matt Fruhan and “deep analytical resources,” Morningstar analyst Robby Greengold wrote in a commentary.
“[Fruhan has] has always taken a serious approach that often embraces unloved or fundamentally contested companies and avoids companies whose shares it believes have been bought up by market mania,” Greengold said.
“The process is not inherently upsetting,” he notes. The fund’s first holding as of March 31 was Microsoft MSFT.
“Rather, it’s centered on assessment,” Greengold said.
“Fruhan has long doubted that the growth expectations embedded in many of the top-performing stocks in the S&P 500 are achievable.”
Dodge & Cox Income
Barron’s cites the bond fund for its low cost and average duration of less than five years.
Low duration bonds are generally less risky. DODIX has an expense ratio of 0.41%, according to Morningstar.
It gives the fund a gold rating.
Morningstar analyst Sam Kulahan cites “an experienced team, a robust long-term investment approach and an attractive price.”
The fund’s success “is due to its relatively patient and sometimes contrarian approach to investing,” Kulahan wrote in a commentary.
Managers “start with a three to five year investment horizon,” he said.
“They tend to favor companies, noting that the yield advantage offered by these securities is a significant contributor to total returns over time, and manage a fairly compact portfolio of mostly cash bonds.”