JPMorgan Equity Income benefits from a prudent, time-tested approach and an experienced team.
Longtime lead manager Clare Hart rode off into the sunset on Sept. 5, 2024 after successfully running the strategy for 20 years. The institutional shares thumped its prospectus benchmark Russell 1000 Value Index and trounced the typical large-value Morningstar Category peer during her tenure. Hart won Morningstar’s Outstanding Portfolio Manager award for investing excellence in 2024.
While Hart’s retirement was a key loss, this team remains in good hands. Comanagers Andrew Brandon and David Silberman have the skill and experience to drive outperformance long term. Brandon came to J.P. Morgan Asset Management as an equity analyst in 2000, joined this team in 2012, and rose to named manager here in November 2019. Silberman joined the firm in 1989 and ran portfolios for private clients before serving as the firm’s corporate governance expert starting in 2008; he joined this team as a comanager in November 2019.
The comanagers have solid support. Dedicated analysts Tony Lee and Lerone Vincent joined this value team in 2018 and 2022, respectively. In January 2024, the managers, including Hart, recruited Laura Huang from the firm’s central analyst team to cover financials here—Hart’s area of expertise.
The process isn’t flashy but is time-tested and consistent. The managers use the same approach that Hart designed, seeking 85-110 high-quality companies with reasonable valuations that can maintain stable dividend yields of at least 2%. Their classic value philosophy holds that a pool of well-run but undervalued companies with reliable earnings and disciplined capital allocation policies will beat the market over the long term. The key here is not so much in this sensible viewpoint, but in executing it with discipline and detailed insight.
The strategy’s returns since Brandon and Silberman joined as managers in November 2019 have lagged, but there’s cause for optimism. During that span the market has had two sharp rallies, in which the strategy tends to lag. And it did show its trademark low volatility and relative buoyancy during the 2022 downturn.