Top ten US growth managers revealed

In US equities,value managers made some ground back on their growth counterparts during the sharp market rally of 2009, but the top of the three year ranking tables is still dominated by growth managers.

Top of the growth pile is AAA-rated David Watson from Atlanta-based Montag & Caldwell. He runs the Dublin-domiciled Montag & Caldwell US Equity Large Cap Growth fund, as well as two mandates from the Nordic region: Banco Amerika and Lansforsakringar Nordamerikafond. Across the fund he has returned 3.7% in the past three years, while the average manager in the sector lost 18%.

For 2010, drag-racer Watson is overweighting the consumer staples, health care and technology sectors, while underweighting consumer cyclicals, materials and energy stocks.

Second in the table of leading growth managers below is A-rated James Reilly, the Chicago-based head of Alliance Bernstein's US large cap growth team and manager of its $210 million, Luxembourg-domiciled American Growth fund.

A quartet of managers take joint third place in the table for their performance with the Neuberger Berman US Large Cap Growth fund. Lawrence Fisher, Daniel Fletcher, Daniel Rosenblatt and John Barker co-manage the fund which has delivered a loss of 1.81% in three years.

Seventh in the rankings is the manager of ING's $85 million US Growth fund, Citywire A-rated Richard Welsh. He joined ING in 2004 from Columbus Circle Investors where he was senior analyst on its large-cap core and large-cap growth teams. Boasting 17 years' experience, Welsh also previously worked at Evergreen Funds and American Century.

Next in the list is Patrick Kelly from New York-based growth specialist Alger, who featured as Citywire Fund Selector magazine's star manager profile in August 2007. He has lost 3.6% with the Alger American Asset Growth fund over three years, but over five years the fund has returned 37% while the sector's average fund has lost 0.7%.

Kelly employs a research-intensive approach and invests in growth companies across the market cap spectrum. Currently information technology is Kelly's major play in the fund, with almost a third of his portfolio in the sector. As of the end of December, Apple, Intel and Microsoft were all among Kelly's top five holdings.

Ninth in the list is concentrated growth specialist Ron Sachs, manager of the Janus Selection Twenty and $529 million Janus US Twenty funds. Like Kelly, Sachs also has Apple as his largest holding currently.

Completing the top ten is Dennis Lynch of Morgan Stanley, manager of its $181 million US Equity Growth fund.