Arrowstreet rates as top quant manager

Arrowstreet has emerged as the standout performer in ratings house Standard & Poor’s International Equities Large Cap Quantitative Funds analysis.

The ratings house described the international equities large cap quantitative funds peer group has being highly competitive with successful approaches having been replicated over time.

S&P Fund Services analyst John Huynh said it was on this basis that the ratings house highly rated those managers that had been able to stay ahead of the pack with unique insights and effective proprietary research.

He said that the standout manager in the peer group was Arrowstreet and this had warranted S&P reaffirming the manager’s five-star rating.

Huynh said the five-star rating had been established on the back of the manager having performed impressively through the global financial crisis “due to its robust process that delivered consistent alpha during different market environments”.

While Arrowstreet held its top S&P ranking, the ratings house downgraded two Invesco funds from four stars to three stars, arguing that the manager would benefit from a more integrated research approach between its US and European-based teams.

Looking at the sector as a whole, Huynh said that the quantitative peer group had struggled to deliver consistent alpha over recent years in an environment that was unusually challenging for quantitatively driven strategies.