US Large-Cap Sustainable Funds Have Lost 5.93% of Their Value Year-to-Date

US large-cap sustainable funds have lost 5.93% of their value in the year through April 30, lagging a range of benchmarks.

The largest U.S. large-cap sustainable funds lost 5.93% in the year through April 30, lagging a range of benchmarks.

The Morningstar US Large Cap Index fell 5.28%, the Morningstar US Sustainability Index declined by 3.06%, and the Morningstar US Market Index went down 5.19%. Additionally, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY decreased by 4.94%.

The period includes all-time highs for broad U.S. benchmarks, encompassing the Morningstar US Sustainability Index, which reached its peak on February 18. The market trended downwards after the apex, driven by signs of a weakening economy and concerns about announced tariffs on Canada and Mexico, ultimately leading to a global selloff two weeks later on April 2.

This article delves into the performance of the biggest U.S. sustainable big-cap funds during the same period and highlights the top five performing U.S. large-cap sustainable funds so far in 2024.

Sustainable investing has become a focus for many investors who want to generate strong financial returns while supporting environmentally and socially responsible practices.

To locate our sustainable funds, we used Morningstar Direct to screen for large-cap U.S. equity. We selected funds from the oldest share class that fell into the sustainable investment overall category. The funds from this screen were ranked by their fund size and then, separately, by total return. We analyzed the largest five sustainable funds and compared them with the SPDR S&P 500 ETF and the Morningstar US Market Index. This yielded 106 funds.

Parnassus Core Equity Fund PRBLX

The investment seeks to achieve both capital appreciation and current income. The fund’s objective is to achieve both capital appreciation and current income by investing primarily in a diversified portfolio of equity securities. It is an ESG-oriented fund with an active management style. The fund's managers aim to select companies that meet their ESG criteria, such as those involved in carbon solutions or sustainable agriculture.

This ESG-oriented approach has its merits as focusing on quality companies and downside protection in a compact, roughly 40-stock portfolio has keyed the fund’s success. Since Todd Ahlsten became a manager on the strategy (US-based Parnassus Core Equity), the Investor shares have outperformed the S&P 500 in almost every market correction, including the 2007-09 global financial crisis, 2018’s end-of-year pullback, and early 2020’s pandemic-driven selloff. Its emphasis on companies with stable competitive footing helps drive its resilience.

Stephen Welch, Morningstar Senior Analyst

Vanguard FTSE Social Index Fund VFTNX

The investment seeks to track the performance of the FTSE US Choice Index Index that measures the investment return of large- and mid-capitalization stocks. The index is composed of large- and mid-cap stocks of companies that are screened for certain environmental, social, and corporate governance criteria by the index provider. It is an ESG-oriented index-tracking fund with an active management style. The fund's managers aim to select companies that meet their ESG criteria and maintain a portfolio that closely tracks the underlying index.

Its portfolio managers benefit from the firm’s global infrastructure and advanced portfolio management technology, which facilitates cost-efficient trading around the globe. The infrequent turnover of managers, coupled with Vanguard’s practice of rotating them across various funds, enhances their expertise and understanding of different market segments.

Lan Anh Tran, Morningstar Analyst

iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF ESGU

The investment seeks to track the investment results of the MSCI USA Extended ESG Focus Index. The fund generally will invest at least 90% of its assets in the component securities of the underlying index and may invest up to 10% of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash, and cash equivalents. The underlying index is an optimized equity index designed to reflect the equity performance of US companies that have favorable environmental, social, and governance characteristics (as determined by the index provider), while exhibiting risk and return characteristics similar to those of the MSCI USA Index (the ‘parent index’). It is an ESG-oriented index-tracking fund with a passive management style. The fund's managers aim to select companies that meet their ESG criteria and maintain a portfolio that closely tracks the underlying index.

The fund further tethers stock weightings to those of the parent index. This keeps performance in line with its tracking-error target. Sector weightings must remain within 5 percentage points of those in the MSCI USA Index, and individual positions can’t deviate by more than 2 percentage points. The resulting portfolio has a similar makeup as the Morningstar Category