Morningstar© Ratings™ For funds, or "star rating", is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product's monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% three-year rating for 36-59 months of total returns, 60% five-year rating/40% three-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% five-year rating/20% three-year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent three-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods. Ratings do not take sales charges into account.
Morningstar© Category Ratings™ Identifies funds based on their actual investment styles as measured by their underlying portfolio holdings over the past three years. If the fund is less than three years old, the category is based on the life of the fund. ©2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
The Morningstar Style Box™ Reveals a fund's investment strategy.
For equity funds the vertical axis shows the market capitalization of the long stocks owned and the horizontal axis shows investment style (value, blend, or growth). A darkened cell in the style box matrix indicates the weighted average style of the portfolio.
For portfolios holding fixed-income investments, a Fixed Income Style Box is calculated. The vertical axis shows the credit quality based on credit ratings and the horizontal axis shows interest-rate sensitivity as measured by effective duration. There are three credit categories - "High", "Medium", and "Low"; and there are three interest rate sensitivity categories - "Limited", "Moderate", and "Extensive"; resulting in nine possible combinations. As in the Equity Style Box, the combination of credit and interest rate sensitivity for a portfolio is represented by a darkened square in the matrix. Morningstar uses credit rating information from credit rating agencies (CRAs) that have been designated Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations (NRSROs) by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States. For a list of all NRSROs, please visit https://www.sec.gov/ocr/ocr-current-nrsros.html. Additionally, Morningstar will use credit ratings from CRAs which have been recognized by foreign regulatory institutions that are deemed the equivalent of the NRSRO designation. To determine the rating applicable to a holding and the subsequent holding weighted value of a portfolio two methods may be employed. First is a common methodology approach where if a case exists such that two CRAs have rated a holding, the lower rating of the two should be applied; if three or more CRAs have rated a holding, the median rating should be applied; and in cases where there are more than two ratings and a median rating cannot be determined, the lower of the two middle ratings should be applied. Alternatively, if there is more than one rating available an average can be calculated from all and applied.
Please Note: Morningstar, Inc. is not an NRSRO nor does it issue a credit rating on the fund. Credit ratings for any security held in a portfolio can change over time.
Morningstar uses the credit rating information to calculate a weighted-average credit quality value for the portfolio. This value is based only upon those holdings which are considered to be classified as "fixed income", such a government, corporate, or securitized issues. Other types of holdings such as equities and many, though not all, types of derivatives are excluded. The weighted-average credit quality value is represented by a rating symbol which corresponds to the long-term rating symbol schemas employed by most CRAs. Note that this value is not explicitly published but instead serves as an input in the Style Box calculation. This symbol is then used to map to a Style Box credit quality category of “low,” “medium,” or “high”. Funds with a "low" credit quality category are those whose weighted-average credit quality is determined to be equivalent to the commonly used High Yield classification, meaning a rating below "BBB", portfolios assigned to the "high" credit category have either a "AAA" or "AA+" average credit quality value, while "medium" are those with an average rating of “AA-“ inclusive to "BBB-". It is expected and intended that the majority of portfolios will be assigned a credit category of "medium".
For assignment to an interest-rate sensitivity category, Morningstar uses the average effective duration of the portfolio. From this value there are three distinct methodologies employed to determine assignment to category.
Portfolio which are assigned to Morningstar municipal-bond categories employ static breakpoints between categories. These breakpoints are: "Limited" equal to 4.5 years or less, "Moderate" equal to 4.5 years to less than 7 years; and "Extensive" equal to more than 7 years. For portfolios assigned to Morningstar categories other than U.S. Taxable, including all domiciled outside the United States, static duration breakpoints are also used: "Limited" equals less than or equal to 3.5 years, "Moderate" equals greater than 3.5 years but less than or equal to 6 years, and "Extensive" is assigned to portfolios with effective durations of more than 6 years.
Note: Interest-rate sensitivity for non-U.S. domiciled portfolios (excluding those in Morningstar convertible categories) may be assigned using average modified duration when average effective duration is not available.
For portfolios Morningstar classifies as U.S. Taxable Fixed-Income, interest-rate sensitivity category assignment is based on the effective duration of the Morningstar Core Bond Index (MCBI). The classification assignment is dynamically determined relative to the benchmark index value. A “Limited” category will be assigned to portfolios whose average effective duration is between 25% to 75% of MCBI average effective duration, where the average effective duration is between 75% to 125% of the MCBI the portfolio will be classified as “Moderate”, and those portfolios with an average effective duration value 125% or greater of the average effective duration of the MCBI will be classified as “Extensive”.
