Key Morningstar Metrics for Invesco International Growth Fund
- : International EquityMorningstar Category
- : NeutralMorningstar Medalist Rating
- : Above AverageProcess Pillar
- : AveragePeople Pillar
- : AverageParent Pillar
Although Invesco International Growth’s managers are experienced and long-tenured, they haven’t been in their current roles long, and changes in their supporting cast add uncertainty. The strategy’s People rating has been downgraded to Average from Above Average while its Process rating remains Above Average.
George Evans, who managed this strategy since 1996, retired at the end of 2024. Rob Dunphy, who had been comanager since 2012, became lead manager, and Ananya Lodaya, an analyst since 2016, was promoted to comanager. At the time, they had the support of the two experienced analysts dedicated to this strategy. But one of them, Victor Zimmermann, left Invesco a few months later. In June 2025, the other dedicated analyst, Zachary Sacks, was named co-lead manager of a fund with a different mandate, Invesco International Value. Sacks remains on this strategy’s team, but his attention is now divided. The team did add an analyst to take Zimmermann’s spot, but he has been on this team for less than a year.
Dunphy has not made significant changes to the established approach here, which targets what he calls quality-growth firms (those that have sound growth prospects with impressive profitability and limited competition, among other traits). There’s been at least one tweak, though. From Dec. 31, 2024, to March 31, 2026, the fund’s weighting in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing climbed to 7.7% from 2.7%. That’s quite a departure from the strategy’s previous history, when the top stock typically received around 3.5% of assets or, on rare occasions, 5%.
It’s understandable why he and Lodaya are willing to break with tradition; the strategy’s once-enviable performance has turned sour. The Y shares have lagged the foreign large-growth Morningstar Category average as well as the MSCI ACWI ex-US and the MSCI ACWI ex-US Growth in three of the past four years, with 2023 the exception. (This pattern continued in the first four months of 2026.) Dunphy says market dynamics are partly to blame, in that quality stocks have been out of favor. That’s true to an extent—the MSCI ACWI ex-US Quality has often lagged the above indexes in recent years—but the Y shares’ returns fall far short of the quality index, too. One reason: The fund has negligible stakes in the energy and materials sectors, which have a decent level of representation in the quality index.
This strategy’s approach is reasonable, but given the competition and the changes on its team, it faces a tough challenge.
Invesco International Growth Fund: Performance Highlights
The strategy’s once-enviable performance has turned sour. The Y shares have lagged the foreign large-growth category average as well as the MSCI ACWI ex-US and the MSCI ACWI ex-US Growth in three of the past four years, often by wide margins, with 2023 the exception. Lead manager Rob Dunphy says market dynamics are partly to blame, in that quality stocks have been out of favor. That’s true to an extent—the MSCI ACWI ex-US Quality has often lagged the above indexes in recent years—but the Y shares’ returns fall far short of the quality index, too. The start of 2026 has not been promising, either. Following a particularly disappointing 2025, the Y shares suffered a 1.5% loss in the first four months of 2026, while the MSCI ACWI ex-US Growth Index rose 7.1%.
There are several explanations for the dismal recent performance. The portfolio has negligible stakes in the energy and materials sectors, which generally have a decent level of representation in the other indexes. It also lacked exposure to SK Hynix and (until late 2025) Samsung Electronics, whose share prices soared. In addition, some of the fund’s stocks were hammered by the market’s disdain for any company whose business model was deemed to be at risk from advances in artificial intelligence. Among those were SAP, Accenture, and RELX. The Y shares’ trailing five-, 10-, and 15-year returns now lag all three of the indexes named above, as well as the foreign large-growth average. It’s not far behind over 15 years, but in the shorter periods, the gaps are large.
