Kiplinger Selects Top Mutual Funds for '09

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance released on Tuesday the Kiplinger 25 list, its pick of top stock, bond, and commodity funds.

Topping the list of large-company stock funds was Dodge & Cox Stock .
Fund Summary: Invests primarily in a broadly diversified portfolio of common stocks. In selecting investments, it invests in companies that appear to be temporarily undervalued but have a favorable outlook for long-term growth.

Kiplinger's pick for the best small- and midsize-company fund was Baron Small Cap .
Fund Summary: Normally invests at least 80% of assets in securities of small-sized companies.

The 2009 Kiplinger 25

LARGE-COMPANY FUNDS Dodge & Cox Stock Fidelity Contrafund Longleaf Partners T. Rowe Price Equity Income Selected American Shares S Vanguard Primecap Core SMALL/MIDSIZE COMPANY FUNDS Baron Small Cap FBR Focus Fidelity Low-Priced Stock T. Rowe Price Mid-Cap Growth T. Rowe Price Small-Cap Value Vanguard Selected Value INTERNATIONAL/GLOBAL FUNDS Artio International Equity II A Dodge & Cox International Stock Marsico Global T. Rowe Price Emrg Mkts Stock GO-ANYWHERE FUNDS CGM Focus Fairholme Fund   FPA Crescent COMMODITY FUND Pimco CommodityRealRet Strat D BOND FUNDS Dodge & Cox Income Fidelity Intermed Muni Income Harbor Bond Institutional Loomis Sayles Bond Vanguard Infltn-Prot Securities Source: Kiplinger.com See More Details on the Kiplinger 25 at Kiplinger.com

This year's top pick in the international/global funds category is Artio International Equity II A .
Fund Summary: Invests 80 percent of assets in international equities. It may at times invest all of assets in fewer than five countries. The fund may at times invest at least 65% of total assets in no fewer than three different countries outside the U.S. It invests up to 35% of total assets in emerging-market securities.

In the Go-Anywhere funds category, CGM Focus came out at the top of Kiplinger's list.
Fund Summary: Typically invests in the securities of between 20 to 100 companies at any one time. It may invest in companies regardless of the size of their market capitalization, but primarily invests in companies with market capitalizations of at least $100 million. The fund may invest in debt and fixed income securities of any maturity and any grade. It is nondiversified.

Pimco CommodityRealRet Strat D was the only fund picked for the commodity fund category.
Fund Summary: Normally invests in commodity-linked derivative instruments backed by a portfolio of inflation-indexed securities and other fixed income instruments. It seeks to gain exposure to the commodity markets primarily through investments in leveraged or unleveraged commodity index-linked notes. The fund may also invest up to 10% of total assets in preferred stocks. It is nondiversified.

And Dodge & Cox Income came out at the top of the bond funds category.
Fund Summary: Normally invests in a diversified portfolio of high-quality bonds and other fixed-income securities, including U.S. government obligations, mortgage- and asset-backed securities, corporate bonds, collateralized mortgage obligations and others rated A or better by either Standard & Poor's Ratings Group or Moody's.

New Additions for 2009:

This year's list includes five new additions, four of which recently reopened to new investors: Fidelity Contrafund

Fidelity Low-Priced Stock

T. Rowe Price Mid-Cap Growth

T. Rowe Price Small-Cap Value

FPA Crescent

Dropped for 2009:

The five mutual funds dropped from the 2008 list are:

Legg Mason Opportunity

Bridgeway Aggressive Investors II

Marsico 21st Century

Kinetics Paradigm

T. Rowe Price Growth Stock

Get more from Kiplinger.com, including details of how the funds are picked, what's changed from earlier lists and the worst-performing fund on last year's list.

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