Roger Aitken examines AXA Framlington Health R Inc

AXA Framlington Health R Inc., a £563.52m fund, topped ranked the UK funds sector over the past year to 31 March 2015 with a robust performance of +44.42%. It followed superlative performances over the past three and five years to date of +109.21% and +138.09%, respectively. And, since it was launched on 24 April 1987 the fund has produced a stellar performance of +1,688% with +240.33% over the past 10 years.

The stated objective of the fund is to achieve capital growth through investment in healthcare and medical services and product companies globally. The investment thrust is towards producers of pharmaceuticals, biotech firms, medical device and instrument manufacturers, distributors of healthcare products and care providers.

Mark Hargraves, who manages the fund and joined AXA Framlington in 2000 following spells with United Friendly Asset Management and SG Hambros Fund Managers, applies a “blended stock selection” with a bias towards GARP for the AXA Framlington European unit trust.

AXA Framlington Health R Inc’s top 10 holdings currently account for 33.1% of the investable portfolio, with the portfolio split between Healthcare (87.16%), Consumer Services (7.03%), Non-Classified Equity (2.69%) and Technology Healthcare (1.09%) as at 31 January 2015. Among the top 10 holdings are Roche Holding AG Par (5.65%), Gilead Science Inc Ord (5.02%), Novartis AG Ord (4.68%), Amgen Inc Ord (2.91%), Medtronic Plc Ord (2.69%), Celgene Corp Ord (2.69%), UnitedHealth Group (2.54%) and AbbieVie Inc Ord (2.52%).

For US Mutual funds, the $2,575.40m Ariel Investor fund top ranked the sector over the past year out of 192 funds with a performance of +19.54% versus +79.82% over the past three years (2nd rank) and +111.09% (6th rank). Eventide Gilead N, a $1,416m fund, ranked fourth over the past 12 months to date but scored something of a double first over the past three years (+94.60%) to date and past five (+153.19%).

Among UK Insurance funds, FL/AXA Framlington AL Life fund came top over one-, three- and five-year periods on +38.29%, +92.42% and +118.36%, respectively. It was a similar picture for the UK Individual Pension funds sector with FL/AXA Framlington Health AP pension ranked top with +46.38% over the past year, +116.67% over past three years and +153.01% over five. UK Individual Pensions overall produced the peer group average over the past year with +27.37%, while European funds took the top spoils over the past three years (+42.08%) and US Mutuals over five years (+61.59%).