Beating the US equity market is no mean feat. The S&P 500 has made a sterling total return just shy of 80 per cent over five years, putting it well ahead of other major indices such as the FTSE Europe ex UK (45 per cent), Japan's Topix (35.5 per cent), the FTSE and emerging markets. With returns often concentrated in a handful of stocks (be the Magnificent Seven or another moniker of choice), stockpickers also struggle to keep up. The life of a global or US equity manager is not an easy one.
And yet some funds have developed promising tendencies on this front, with returns to match. Multiple funds have trumped the US equity index not just over the stated period, but also with a decent degree of consistency. And not all of them have had to cling to big tech to post such numbers.
A standout name here is Pershing Square Holdings (PSH), whose pedigree we highlighted earlier this year. The shares are sitting on a 210 per cent total return over five years and a closer look at that time period suggests some degree of consistency. PSH shareholders did enjoy an unusually large return in 2020, but the fund otherwise has held its own against the S&P 500 in more prosaic fashion, outperforming in 2023 and 2022 and lagging but still posting big gains in 2021.