3 Top-Ranked Balanced Funds for Risk Management & Growth
Balanced funds offer investors the convenience of buying into a single fund rather than holding both equity and bond funds. This category of funds also reduces a portfolio’s volatility, while providing higher returns than pure fixed-income investments.
The fund managers also enjoy the flexibility of changing the proportion of equity and fixed-income investments in response to market conditions. An upswing may prompt them to hold a relatively higher share of equity to maximize gains, whereas a downturn will see them shifting loyalties toward fixed-income investments to stem losses.
Below, we share with you three top-ranked balanced mutual funds, viz. Fidelity Balanced Fund FBALX, George Putnam Balanced Fund PGEOX and Sit Balanced Fund SIBAX. Each has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and is expected to outperform its peers in the future. Investors can click here to see the complete list of funds.
Fidelity Balanced Fund invests most of its net assets in stocks and other equity securities. FBALX advisors also invest its assets in fixed-income senior securities, high-yield debt securities or junk bonds and other lower-quality debt securities.
Fidelity Balanced Fund has three-year annualized returns of 16.3%. As of the end of May 2026, FBALX had 349 issues with 5.8% of its net assets invested in NVIDIA.
George Putnam Balanced Fund invests most of its net assets in a portfolio of bonds and common stocks. PGEOX advisors generally invest in common stocks of large-cap domestic companies with growth, value, or both characteristics.
George Putnam Balanced Fund has three-year annualized returns of 15.5%. PGEOX has an expense ratio of 0.85%.
Sit Balanced Fund invests its assets in common stocks of domestic growth companies with a capitalization of $5 billion or more. SIBAX advisors also invest primarily in debt securities for the fixed-income portion of the fund's portfolio.
Sit Balanced Fund has three-year annualized returns of 14.8%. Roger J. Sit has been the lead manager of SIBAX since June 2008.
To view the Zacks Rank and the past performance of all balanced mutual funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of funds.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
