If you own (popular) PRWCX, the two largest equity holdings are Microsoft and Amazon. Those two, along with Alphabet (#5), comprise 9.1% of the fund’s holdings according to Lipper. Just for comparison, I looked at value oriented DODGX. Only one of the tech giants appears in its top ten (Alphabet #5 at 3.3%).
There’s a tendency to judge a fund by its past performance - particularly the 3, 5 and 10 year numbers. I do that to some extent myself. But in trying to assemble a diversified portfolio that will stand up under various types of market stress, it’s a good idea to “drill down” and consider the stocks you are really purchasing when you buy a fund. Looking “under the hood” is another way of putting it.

The article takes a contrarian approach. Their underlying premise is that they see a dangerously narrow concentration of only a few tech giants in the S&P. So, the idea behind the piece is to find funds that have little or no exposure to the five tech giants.
I was able to excerpt a few passages from the lead-in to the story that might shed more light on the story and funds she picked. I’d never invest in specific products of any kind simply because Barron’s featured them. There’s an element of “fluff” and the elicitation of “eye-balls” in most of the feature stories - especially pertaining to actively managed funds, I think. That’s not to say Barron’s doesn’t do a fine job raising important issues for investors to think about.
“The S&P 500 is generally considered to be the best proxy for the U.S. stock market. It represents about 80% of all U.S. stocks, and it is capitalization-weighted, just like the market itself. That means the largest stocks make up a bigger portion of the index. Today, the five largest companies— Apple (ticker: AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon.com (AMZN), Facebook (FB), and Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL)—make up 22% of the S&P 500.
“That isn’t diversified. Putting more than a fifth of your assets into five stocks isn’t diversification—and putting more than a fifth of your assets into five technology stocks is even less so. This isn’t a new phenomenon, and Barron’s has warned about the risks the tech megacaps pose to many portfolios, especially the $4.6 trillion that sits in S&P index funds. But the Big Five are showing some early signs of weakness, and those risks may be coming to bear soon, says Barron’s associate editor Reshma Kapadia.
“So what’s an investor to do? Reshma has you covered: She found five actively managed mutual funds that own none or very little of the tech megacaps. And while that has hurt recent performance, these funds have terrific long-term track records and could serve as a good hedge if the giants start to stumble.”
Excerpted from current issue of Barron’s - July 2021

@Dennis,
Thanks for bringing this planned acquistion to our attention!
Jerome Dodson retired from active management last year and the Parnassus sale allows him to cash out.
Since ESG funds are currently popular, this may have been an an opportune time to sell the firm.
Being a PRILX shareholder, I'm glad that Todd Ahlsten and Ben Allen will remain with the firm.
AMG provides support services to acquired mutual fund companies but otherwise allows them to operate with great autonomy.
Here's the AMG business description from an M* Equity Analyst Report dated 04/06/2021.
"Affiliated Managers Group offers investment strategies
to investors through its network of affiliates. The firm
typically buys a majority interest in small to midsize
boutique asset managers, receiving a fixed percentage
of revenue from these firms in return. Affiliates operate
independently, with AMG providing strategic,
operational, and technology support, as well as global
distribution. At the end of 2020, AMG's affiliate network-
-which includes firms like AQR Capital Management,
BPEA and Pantheon in alternative assets and other
products (which accounted for 30% of AUM), Artemis,
Genesis, Harding Loevner, and Tweedy Browne in global
equities (39%) and Frontier, River Road, and Yacktman in
U.S. equities (14%)--had $716.2 billion in managed
assets."

From the article’s comments:
Alejandro M
11 hours ago
A quote from the article:
"She found five actively managed mutual funds that own none or very little of the tech megacaps. And while that has hurt recent performance, these funds have terrific long-term track records and could serve as a good hedge if the giants start to stumble."
If you click on the link to her picks, you get the funds below. Let's mine the data & compare their performance to the QQQ index fund:
Fund YTD 1 yr 2 yr 3yr 5yr 10 yr
QQQ 14.3% 42% 92% 108% 233% 528%
AMCPX 10.5 27 34 30 66 116
AKREX 15.7 28 45 77 160 385
JENSX 12.3 23 23 28 59 118
POGRX 17.6 28 27 25 93 201
CAMOX 19.3 42 37 26 32 53
VS
SPY 15.9 39 48 60 107 229
The numbers speak for themselves. The funds not only underperformed recently but for the past 10 yrs. The risk is grossly underperforming the unmanaged QQQ & S&P 500 index funds. If you own the funds recommended your probably not a happy camper knowing this data. Follow the data points.

AMG is effectively a holding company. You may be familiar with at least a few of their funds, e.g. YACKX, TCMPX (mentioned by a few posters here as recently as 2020), BRWIX (formerly Brandywine), MGSEX (" Effective March 19, 2021, AMG Managers Special Equity Fund ... changed its name[] to AMG Veritas Asia Pacific Fund"), etc.
Though as noted with that last fund, AMG seems to have recently overhauled a few Managers Funds. And while one can ignore the earlier name change of BRWIX, M* observed that the entire management team was just replaced in March rendering its past history meaningless.
https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/series?sc=companyseries&type=N-PX&company=AMG

Thanks for the information! Try this link in a private window in Mozilla/Firefox/
https://www.barrons.com/articles/amg-to-buy-parnassus-51625420672

Complete text of article from Barron's: Affiliated Managers Group, the big holding company for asset managers, has agreed to buy Parnassus Investments, the socially responsible investment firm, for $600 million, according to a person knowledgeable about the transaction.
The move demonstrates the popularity of environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, investing. In recent years, Parnassus, based in San Francisco, has grown swiftly as the vogue for sustainable investing strengthened and as the firm developed a reputation for reliably good performance. It has five mutual funds, all fossil-fuel free.
Sustainable investing, also known as ESG investing, has been a huge and steady trend in recent years. In 2020, nearly a quarter of all fund flows went into sustainable funds. That could gain strength as U.S. retirement plans open up to sustainable investing.
About a third of the $51.4 trillion of U.S. assets under management is sustainably managed, according to US SIF, the trade group for the sustainable-investment industry. Indeed, a survey by investment manager Schroders found that 69% of retirement-plan participants said they would or might increase their overall contribution rate if their plan offered ESG options.
Both Parnassus and AMG (ticker: AMG) declined to comment or confirm the terms of the transaction. The transaction is subject to the agreement of Parnassus fund shareholders.
Parnassus is approximately 35% owned by its employees and 65% by the founder, Jerome Dodson, and his family. It oversees $47 billion. AMG invests in independent investment managers and allows them to remain independent while providing capital, distribution, and other capabilities to affiliates such as AQR Capital Management and Yacktman Asset Management. It has roughly $720 billion in assets under management.
In recent years, some of the most venerable names in U.S. sustainable investing have been purchased by larger entities. Calvert Research & Management was acquired by Eaton Vance in 2016, which in turn was bought by Morgan Stanley (MS) this year. In 2018, Pax World Management was acquired by Impax Asset Management (IPX.London). Trillium Asset Management was purchased last year by Australian financial services company Perpetual. This year, AMG bought 15% of Boston Common Partners, while Boston Common’s management team and principals retained 85%.
AMG has agreed to pay Parnassus $400 million in cash on closing and an additional $200 million one year later. There is an additional performance fee, according to the person familiar with the transaction. As part of the transaction, Parnassus CEO Ben Allen and chief investment officer Todd Ahlsten, both longtime employees, are signing contracts to remain with the firm. Ahlsten is also a member of the Barron’s Roundtable.
Founder Dodson, 78, a longtime star investor, stepped back last year, leaving Parnassus Endeavor Fund (PARWX) and the funds’ board of trustees. Dodson founded Parnassus in 1984 with $350,000 from friends and family.
Write to Leslie P. Norton at [email protected]

Yes, in Columbus, Ohio. 1997 was the Emerging Market crisis in Asia followed by the shocking late night news report that Lady Diana was killed in an auto accident. Later, that fall OSU lost to Michigan for the third year in a row, putting Michigan in the Rose Bowl, and condemning Buckeye fans to another winter of discontent!

In 1997 my stock walked around 200 acres baa-ing or naa-ing. I had 250 shares of baa and 50 shares naa. My “stock” broker would buy the sheep and goats at last Saturday’s auction price minus 4%. In 1983, I sent a dozen lambs to market and got $100 a piece, in 1999, I sent 100 lambs and got $37 a piece. Soon all I had left was dirt and debts which will be the title to my country and western song if I ever write the lyrics. Fortunately over time the dirt grew in value enough to cover the debts with a little left over to start a handyman business in town. I will always know those years, and yes, with fond memories.

+1 hank If somebody is buying and holding DUST, then the name is appropriate for them : Dense Unusually Stupid Traders !

+1

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Ben Levisohn writing in this week’s Barron’s:
“Like Superman, the S&P 500 appears unstoppable … For the S&P 500, Friday’s close was its seventh high in row, the longest streak since 1997.“
https://www.barrons.com/articles/covid-19-delta-variant-stock-market-51625271990?tesla=y
(Remember where you were or what you were doing back in 1997?)

Provocative title from Randall Randal Forsyth’s Barron’s column this week. It’s a fascinating and lengthy look at current market conditions and investor psychology.
Brief excerpt:
“’Most investors also seem to view the stock market as a force of nature itself. They do not fully realize that they themselves, as a group, determine the level of the market,” Nobel laureate Robert Shiller wrote in his now-classic book Irrational Exuberance. “In short, the price level is driven to a certain extent by a self-fulfilling prophecy, based on similar hunches held by a vast cross-section of large and small investors and reinforced by news media that are often content to ratify this investor-induced conventional wisdom.”
https://www.barrons.com/articles/robinhood-ipo-sign-stock-market-peaked-51625244300

Here’s another one …
http://www.funds.reuters.wallst.com/US/etfs/overview.asp?symbol=DUST.K
DUST is down nearly 50% since inception (2010) and has lost more than 70% of its value over the last 3 years. This one bets against gold, employing 2X leverage.
(“Rules by Which a Great Fortune May Be Reduced to a Small One”)
With both of these funds, I think they’re meant more to be traded by experienced hands in the game than average investors. Read somewhere that some die-hard gold bulls use DUST temporarily to hedge their gains after a big run up in gold’s price. A bit disillusioning to know that some actively followed gold bulls may be shorting the stuff whille continuing to preach its virtues to their followers..
All the above is too complex for me. I’ll stick to a conservative static allocation with occasional underweighting or over-weighting of a component plus regular rebalancing.

@Simon who said:
"There is practically nothing at all within these pages to cater for or appeal to those starting out on life's investment journey. In fact, nothing to appeal to those from 18-45. I'm 55, and Lynn Bolin's monthly articles bore the hell out of me despite their impeccable quality. I'm still seeking agressive growth.
What's a younger invester to do?"
Maybe said investor might consider starting the type of discussions they wish to have.

For those of you that want to tailor your MFO Premium searches to specific metrics, say just 20 or 50 or 100 of the more than 600 data columns available, this upgrade satisfies.
You can read more here.

I dearly wish, however, that MFO wasn't almost exclusively aimed at catering for those in retirement or approaching retirement.
There is practically nothing at all within these pages to cater for or appeal to those starting out on life's investment journey. In fact, nothing to appeal to those from 18-45. .... I'm still seeking agressive growth.

That sounds a bit ageist, don't you think?
Expanding on Catch's suggestion to look at the discussions:
I've posted several comments speaking positively about Pfau and Kitces research on rising glidepaths in retirement. In a sense I've gone further, suggesting that if you're investing to leave a legacy, you might consider the heir's lifetime not your own for the investment horizon. Many, um, older people have reasons to invest as aggressively as "those starting out".
Then there's the question of what you mean by "aggressive growth". If you're looking for a gambling table, here's a recent thread on dogecoin, appropriately titled "keep gambling ?!! Anyone buying dogecoin"
Or perhaps you're looking for posts on the latest hot fund manager. There's been a fair amount posted on Cathy Wood, e.g.
https://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/57508/ark-investing-etfs-interview-with-cathy-wood
https://www.mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/57784/digging-into-ark-innovation-s-portfolio/p1
https://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/57574/you-want-some-more-ark-coming-soon-to-a-choice-near-you-x
Personally, not my cup of tea. To add to the comments of some of the posters in those threads, I find the buzz reminiscent of that surrounding Van Wagoner. All I know of Tsai is what I read in history books, but it seems there were similarities to him as well.
"Aggressive growth" might mean building an aggressively allocated portfolio or it might mean disregarding "risk". On the former, there's been a fair amount of discussion about giving up on bonds. On the latter, I've questioned how risk is quantified, or if it even matters: "why do you care about the volatility of an investment you won't touch for a decade or more?"

+1 TYVM !

I still use Yahoo to view quarterly fund returns, so the RYPNX 1Q 2020 loss of 37.14% is a little too high octane for me. I looked up JABAX on Tiingo and found some good blog and news information: I just need to grasp the Lingo on Tiingo and stop being a confused Dingo !