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VHCOX lost its' touch?

KHaw24
in Fund Discussions
VHCOX is a Primecap SubAdvised fund and I have been a fan of the Primecap funds for a long time. It was a top performing Mid/Large Cap offering 2012-16 but the last 4 years have not been kind. Slumps and out of style for the current cycle are nothing new and all investments go through this naturally. What's making me question the product is the Style Drift over the past 5-7 years and has that helped/hurt the product. It was a Growth fund, focused on mid caps, and naturally evolved into a large cap fund. Now, it's a large blend as per M*. Primecap has Aggressive Growth and Core offrings but as far as I know, this was a ' clone' (not the correct terminology) of the Aggressive product.
Also, they are heavily allocated to Tech and Health so you would think they'd at least catch some of that momentum. I think their tech exposre was higher than the current 28%...Anyone else own this fund and have similar questions?

Comments

  • MikeM2
    My wife and I own....a lot, for a long time. Over 10+years it compares very favorably to the VG large growth ETF (VOOG)but in the last 4yrs it HAS gotten slammed. At the same time is BEAT a mid-cap growth ETFs since LARGE has beaten the snot out of everything else. The COVID Bear seems to have been a turning point, getting left in the dust since late winter/Early spring 2020. MFO Premium has VOOG as a lower risk 4/5 compared to VG Capital Opp. Both are 5/5 overall. VOOG is 38% Tech,11% Healthcare so...no way Cap Opps can compete with that.
  • yogibearbullyogibearbull
    edited December 2021
    It is LC-growth but that includes cyclical-growth too. That can lead to some mistiming as happened with its bets on airlines/travel. Currently, it seems to be sticking with some the US-listed Chinese VIEs-ADRs. So, it offers a different kind of growth than, say, VUG.

    I am a long-time holder.
  • randynevinrandynevin
    I don't own it, but if I did I would certainly continue to hold it. The long-term outperformance (versus a broad-based market index such as VFIAX) has been excellent. I do own the similar PRIMECAP Odyssey Aggressive Growth (POAGX) and continue to hold, despite it underperforming by about 22% so far this year. Ouch, but I'm counting on that long-term outperformance.
  • MikeM2
    edited December 2021
    Not going anywhere but a little variety may be in order.
  • Sven
    The dominant effect of the FAANG stocks over the S&P500 magnified even more after spring 2020. There was a short period (winter 2020 thru summer 2021) where the market broadened to allow the cyclical value stocks to out-perform (large and small caps). Now the large cap growth stocks have returned. My smaller cap funds are trailing their larger cap funds.
  • KHaw24
    Somewhat applicable article that doesn't answer my OP...but relative to the overall topic?

    https://www.morningstar.com/articles/1071801/has-vanguard-lost-its-way?utm_source=eloqua&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_morningdigest&utm_content=33307
  • Observant1
    I don't think Mr. Rekenthaler's article has any relevance to VHCOX performance.
    He does make some good points regarding Vanguard's customer service and recent offerings.
    Like its competitors, Vanguard has adapted to the changing investment environment.
    This certainly isn't the old Vanguard but it's too early to declare that it has "lost its way."
  • yogibearbullyogibearbull
    I think that JR meant that VG has lost its way as an indexer.

    Hardly a day goes by when there isn't an email from VG on its old robo-PAS, new robo-PAS (digital), its active funds' edge, and of course, brokerage conversion request/demand/threat emails to my wife (but never to me).
  • sfnative
    As a long term owner of two Primecap funds (at either end of the so-called risk spectrum) I have some concerns. The obvious one is relative performance: all of the Primecap funds seem to have under-performed their benchmarks -- as well as "the market" -- over the past five years, some over the past ten (especially when taxes are taken into account). I regard that as a moderate length of time, sufficient to capture my attention. When it comes to the riskier funds (in my case POAGX), I seem to see some very off-beat names in the top 25 holdings, although I'm certainly not privy to the research resulting in those buy decisions. Of far greater concern to me is the fact that the team at Primecap appears to lack any notion of a "sell" discipline. The concept of a "target price" seems alien to them. On many occasions in the recent past the market has literally gifted stocks in the portfolios with sudden, unwarranted, and ultimately temporary price increases that Primecap rarely takes advantage of. (Examples include BABA, BIIB, NKTR, SGEN, but there are quite a few in addition.) What to do? I decided to take this year's hefty capital gains distributions (attributable to shareholder redemptions) in cash. Based on preliminary information, it looks like most Odyssey fund shareholders did the same thing yesterday. The Vanguard funds haven't made their distributions yet.
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