Since the launch of its first fund in 1937, Putnam Investments has come a long way. It is now a well-established specialist investment manager backed by Franklin Templeton following its acquisition in January 2024. Putnam had approximately $162.3 billion in assets under management as of December 2025.
It has a global presence in North America, Europe and Asia, with key offices in Boston, London and Singapore, and its investment capabilities are extended through Franklin Templeton’s broader international infrastructure.
Below, we share with you three top-ranked Putnam mutual funds, namely Putnam Large Cap Value Fund PEYAX, Putnam Core Bond Fund PTREX and Putnam U.S. Research PNRAX. Each has earned 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.
Putnam Large Cap Value Fund primarily invests in U.S. common stocks, emphasizing undervalued companies. The adviser evaluates factors such as valuation, financial strength, earnings outlook, cash flows, dividends, growth prospects and competitive positioning to identify opportunities for capital appreciation, income, or both.
Putnam Large Cap Value Fund has a three-year annualized return of 18.1%. As of October 2025, PEYAX held 69 issues with 3.7% of its assets invested in Citigroup.
Putnam Core Bond Fund invests in investment-grade government and corporate bonds with intermediate- to long-term maturities, may hold lower-rated securities, and generally allocates most assets to bonds and related instruments.
Putnam Core Bond Fund has a three-year annualized return of 4.8%. PEIYX has an expense ratio of 0.19%.
Putnam U.S. Research primarily invests the majority of its assets in equity securities of U.S.-based companies. Any change to this investment policy would be made only after providing advance notice to shareholders.
Putnam U.S. Research has a three-year annualized return of 24.3%. Matthew J. LaPlant has been one of the fund managers of PNRAX since March 2023.
To view the Zacks Rank and the past performance of all Putnam mutual funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of Putnam mutual funds.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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