He launched the fund back in 1978—less than a year after “Saturday Night Fever” was released—to invest in dividend-paying stocks. Some of the holdings in the fund (symbol COPLX) have been around almost as long as the fund itself, and Mr. Levine describes his management strategy, like his tennis game, as “steady, involving no gambling or big risk-taking, and doing what ought to be done carefully.”
Copley Fund’s win, with a 20.67% gain for the past 12 months, marks the second quarter in a row that dividend-paying stocks have ended up in the spotlight in the contest. The five diversified U.S.-stock funds that turned in the best performance over the past 12 months all devote themselves to picking stocks that can pay hefty dividends, rather than those that can generate big capital gains or earnings growth.
As usual, every diversified U.S.-stock fund that has at least $50 million in assets and a record of more than three years is eligible for the contest, as long as it is actively managed. Index funds and exchange-traded funds don’t count; neither do sector funds, nor hybrid funds that generate returns from a combination of debt and equity. Leveraged funds don’t qualify, since that leverage can distort their returns.
