Sustainable Future Fund (Class A) (PMVAX)
Investing in growing companies solving sustainability challenges
Highlights
Objective
The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation.
Strategy and process
- Impact companies: The fund invests in growth companies that directly demonstrate positive impact in social, environmental, or economic development.
- Active strategy: The managers utilize bottom-up research to identify companies with attractive sustainability, fundamental, and valuation characteristics.
- Veteran team: A dedicated sustainable investing team is backed by Putnam's equity research and quantitative/risk analysis groups.
Fund price |
Yesterday’s close | 52-week high | 52-week low |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net asset value |
$20.15
-0.10% | $-0.02 |
$22.05
09/14/18 |
$19.08
04/02/18 |
Fund facts as of 09/30/18
$417.25M
116%
Annually
58
April
746802511 / 0056
11/01/99
Growth
PMVAX
Management team
Manager commentary | Q2 2018
How ESG strategies build on core research
Katherine Collins describes sustainable investing at Putnam.
Literature
Fund documents |
| Fact Sheet (Y share) (PDF) |
| Prospectuses/SAI |
| Annual Fund Report (PDF) |
| Semiannual Fund Report (PDF) |
Sustainable investing: Assessing the choices
Sustainable investing is growing in popularity, and investors should be thoughtful about choosing from a range of strategies and portfolios.Looking for impact in CEO compensation
It’s important for investors to be able to understand how a company’s performance relates to CEO compensation.Looking for impact in CEO compensation
It’s important for investors to be able to understand how a company’s performance relates to CEO compensation.Performance
Consistency of positive performance over five years
Performance shown above does not reflect the effects of any sales charges. Click on the dots to see specific returns in each five-year period as of the date revealed. Note that returns of 0.00% are counted as positive periods. For complete fund performance, please see below.
25.73%
Best 5-year annualized return
(for period ending 03/31/14)
-5.44%
Worst 5-year annualized return
(for period ending 03/31/09)
9.40%
Average 5-year annualized return
Total return (%) as of 09/30/18
Annual performance as of 09/30/18
Annualized Total return (%) as of 09/30/18
| Annualized performance | 1 yr. | 3 yrs. | 5 yrs. | 10 yrs. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before sales charge | 12.58% | 11.60% | 10.06% | 11.23% |
| After sales charge | 6.11% | 9.42% | 8.77% | 10.57% |
| Russell Midcap Growth Index | 21.10% | 16.65% | 13.00% | 13.46% |
| Russell 3000V-Russell MidcapG Linked Benchmark | 12.06% | 14.64% | 11.17% | 10.02% |
Current performance may be lower or higher than the quoted past performance, which cannot guarantee future results. Share price, principal value, and return will vary, and you may have a gain or loss when you sell your shares. Performance assumes reinvestment of distributions and does not account for taxes. Returns before sales charge do not reflect the current maximum sales charges as indicated below. Had the sales charge been reflected, returns would be lower. Returns at public offering price (after sales charge) for class A and class M shares reflect the current maximum initial sales charges of 5.75% and 3.50% for equity funds and Putnam Multi-Asset Absolute Return Fund, and 4.00% and 3.25% for income funds (2.25% and 0.75% for Putnam Short Duration Bond Fund and 1.00% and 0.75% for Putnam Floating Rate Income Fund, Putnam Fixed Income Absolute Return Fund, and Putnam Short-Term Municipal Income Fund), respectively. Class B share returns reflect the applicable contingent deferred sales charge (CDSC), which is 5% in the first year, declining to 1% in the sixth year, and is eliminated thereafter (except for Putnam Floating Rate Income Fund, Putnam Short Duration Bond Fund, Putnam Fixed Income Absolute Return Fund, and Putnam Short-Term Municipal Income Fund, which is 1% in the first year, declining to 0.5% in the second year, and is eliminated thereafter). Class C shares reflect a 1% CDSC the first year that is eliminated thereafter. Performance for class B, C, M, R, and Y shares prior to their inception is derived from the historical performance of class A shares, adjusted for the applicable sales charge (or CDSC) and, except for class Y shares, the higher operating expenses for such shares (with the exception of Putnam Tax-Free High Yield Fund and Putnam AMT-Free Municipal Fund, which are based on the historical performance of class B shares). Class R5/R6 shares, available to qualified employee-benefit plans only, are sold without an initial sales charge and have no CDSC. Class Y shares are generally only available for corporate and institutional clients and have no initial sales charge. Performance for Class R5/R6 shares before their inception are derived from the historical performance of class Y shares, which have not been adjusted for the lower expenses; had they, returns would have been higher. For a portion of the period, some funds had expenses limitations or had been sold on a limited basis with limited assets and expenses, without which returns would be lower.
Performance snapshot
| Before sales charge | After sales charge | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 mt. as of 09/30/18 | -0.64 % | -6.35 % | |
| YTD as of 10/22/18 | 1.21 % | -4.61 % | |
Risk-adjusted performance as of 09/30/18
| Alpha (3 yrs.) | -1.52 |
|---|---|
| Sharpe ratio (3 yrs.) | 1.15 |
| Treynor ratio (3 yrs.) | 12.17 |
| Information ratio (3 yrs.) | -0.88 |
Volatility as of 09/30/18
| Standard deviation (3 yrs.) | 9.44% |
|---|---|
| Beta | 0.89 |
| R-squared | 0.88 |
Capture ratio as of 09/30/18
| Up-market (3 yrs.) | 85.98 |
|---|---|
| Down-market (3 yrs.) | 97.74 |
Lipper rankings as of 09/30/18
| Time period | Rank/Funds in category | Percentile ranking |
|---|---|---|
| 1 yr. | 518/554 | 94% |
| 3 yrs. | 459/492 | 94% |
| 5 yrs. | 367/426 | 86% |
| 10 yrs. | 242/311 | 78% |
Morningstar Ratings™ as of 09/30/18
| Time period | Funds in category | Morningstar Rating™ |
|---|---|---|
| Overall | 373 | |
| 3 yrs. | 373 | |
| 5 yrs. | 315 | |
| 10 yrs. | 228 |
Distributions
| Record/Ex dividend date | 12/06/17 |
|---|---|
| Payable date | 12/08/17 |
| Income | -- |
| Extra income | -- |
| Short-term cap. gain | $0.228 |
| Long-term cap. gain | $0.665 |
Lipper rankings are based on total return without sales charge relative to all share classes of funds with similar objectives as determined by Lipper. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
The Morningstar RatingTM for funds, or "star rating", is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product's monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% three-year rating for 36-59 months of total returns, 60% five-year rating/40% three-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% five-year rating/20% three-year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent three-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods.
The up-market capture ratio is used to evaluate how well an investment manager performed relative to an index during periods when that index has risen. The ratio is calculated by dividing the manager’s returns by the returns of the index during the up-market, and multiplying that factor by 100. The down-market capture ratio is used to evaluate how well an investment manager performed relative to an index during periods when that index has dropped. The ratio is calculated by dividing the manager’s returns by the returns of the index during the down-market and multiplying that factor by 100.
Holdings
Top 10 holdings as of 09/30/18
| Becton Dickinson And | 4.10% |
|---|---|
| Novozymes A/S - B Shares | 4.06% |
| Mccormick Md | 3.98% |
| Salesforce.Com | 3.91% |
| Dxc Technology | 3.49% |
| Alphabet | 3.38% |
| Unilever | 3.21% |
| Danaher Corp | 3.11% |
| Adobe Systems | 2.94% |
| Everbridge | 2.94% |
| Top 10 holdings, percent of portfolio | 35.12% |
Portfolio composition as of 09/30/18
| Common stock | 96.86% |
|---|---|
| Cash and net other assets | 3.14% |
Equity statistics as of 09/30/18
| Median market cap | $13.98B |
|---|---|
| Weighted average market cap | $72.61B |
| Price to book | 3.96 |
| Price to earnings | 24.01 |
Fund characteristics will vary over time.
Due to rounding, percentages may not equal 100%.
Consider these risks before investing: Stock values may fall or fail to rise over time for several reasons, including general financial market conditions, changing market perceptions, changes in government intervention in the financial markets, and factors related to a specific issuer, industry, or sector. These and other factors may lead to increased volatility and reduced liquidity in the fund’s portfolio holdings. Growth stocks may be more susceptible to earnings disappointments, and the market may not favor growth-style investing. Investments in small and/or midsize companies increase the risk of greater price fluctuations. The fund's sustainable investment strategy limits the types and number of investment opportunities available to the fund and, as a result, the fund may underperform other funds that do not have a sustainable focus. The fund's environmental, social, and/or corporate governance (ESG) investment strategy may result in the fund investing in securities or industry sectors that underperform the market as a whole or underperform other funds screened for ESG standards. You can lose money by investing in the fund.
Top industry sectors as of 09/30/18
| Information technology | 23.77% |
|---|---|
| Health care | 20.58% |
| Financials | 14.61% |
| Consumer discretionary | 9.51% |
| Materials | 9.09% |
| Consumer staples | 7.87% |
| Industrials | 6.35% |
| Communication services | 3.49% |
| Cash and net other assets | 3.14% |
| Other | 1.59% |
0
The unclassified sector (where applicable) includes exchange traded funds and other securities not able to be classified by sector.
Sectors will vary over time.
Expenses
Expense ratio |
Class A | Class B | Class C | Class M | Class R | Class R6 | Class Y |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total expense ratio | 1.07% | 1.82% | 1.82% | 1.57% | 1.32% | 0.67% | 0.82% |
| What you pay | 1.07% | 1.82% | 1.82% | 1.57% | 1.32% | 0.67% | 0.82% |
Sales charge
| Investment Breakpoint | Class A | Class B | Class C | Class M | Class R | Class R6 | Class Y |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $0-$49,999 | 5.75% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 3.50% | -- | -- | -- |
| $50,000-$99,999 | 4.50% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 2.50% | -- | -- | -- |
| $100,000-$249,999 | 3.50% | -- | 0.00% | 1.50% | -- | -- | -- |
| $250,000-$499,999 | 2.50% | -- | 0.00% | 1.00% | -- | -- | -- |
| $500,000-$999,999 | 2.00% | -- | 0.00% | 1.00% | -- | -- | -- |
| $1M-$4M | 0.00% | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| $4M-$50M | 0.00% | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| $50M+ | 0.00% | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
CDSC
| Class A (sales for $1,000,000+) | Class B | Class C | Class M | Class R | Class R6 | Class Y | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 to 9 mts. | 1.00% | 5.00% | 1.00% | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 9 to 12 mts. | 1.00% | 5.00% | 1.00% | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 2 yrs. | 0.00% | 4.00% | 0.00% | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 3 yrs. | 0.00% | 3.00% | 0.00% | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 4 yrs. | 0.00% | 3.00% | 0.00% | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 5 yrs. | 0.00% | 2.00% | 0.00% | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 6 yrs. | 0.00% | 1.00% | 0.00% | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| 7+ yrs. | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | -- | -- | -- | -- |
The Russell Midcap Growth Index is an unmanaged index of those companies in the Russell Midcap Index chosen for their growth orientation. The Russell 3000 Value Index is an unmanaged index of those companies in the broad-market Russell 3000 Index chosen for their value orientation. The Russell 3000 Value - Russell Midcap Growth Linked Benchmark represents performance of the Russell 3000 Value Index through March 20, 2018 and performance of the Russell Midcap Growth Index thereafter. You cannot invest directly in an index. As of March 21, 2018, the Russell Midcap Growth Index replaced the Russell 3000 Value Index as the benchmark for this fund because, in Putnam Investment Management, LLC’s opinion, the securities tracked by this index more accurately reflect the types of securities that generally will be held by the fund.
Consider these risks before investing: Stock values may fall or fail to rise over time for several reasons, including general financial market conditions, changing market perceptions, changes in government intervention in the financial markets, and factors related to a specific issuer, industry, or sector. These and other factors may lead to increased volatility and reduced liquidity in the fund’s portfolio holdings. Growth stocks may be more susceptible to earnings disappointments, and the market may not favor growth-style investing. Investments in small and/or midsize companies increase the risk of greater price fluctuations. The fund's sustainable investment strategy limits the types and number of investment opportunities available to the fund and, as a result, the fund may underperform other funds that do not have a sustainable focus. The fund's environmental, social, and/or corporate governance (ESG) investment strategy may result in the fund investing in securities or industry sectors that underperform the market as a whole or underperform other funds screened for ESG standards. You can lose money by investing in the fund.