The go-anywhere Marsico Global fund gives co-manager James "Jimmy" Marsico the freedom to scout the globe for the best stocks for a top mutual fund.
This top-performing mutual fund takes a company first — not country first — approach to global stock-picking. Unlike U.S.-focused stock funds, Marsico Global (MGLBX) has no geographical restraints handcuffing its search for companies it believes can profit from long-term trends and tailwinds.
"We have the freedom to pursue the best ideas wherever they are," said Marsico, who co-pilots the fund with his dad, Tom, and brother, Peter. "We own U.S. semiconductor makers, European luxury franchises, Japanese gaming and German energy infrastructure players all in the same portfolio."
Top Mutual Fund Looks Everywhere
Marsico Global can pick from tens of thousands of stocks (the World Federation of Exchanges says there are currently 53,795 listed companies around the globe). But the fund typically owns only 25 to 40 large-cap stocks. Currently, it holds around 30 stocks.
Marsico Capital, the parent company founded by Tom Marsico in 1997, is known for its concentrated investment approach. And Marsico Global fits the profile. The portfolio is populated only with top picks.
"The real hallmark here at Marsico is concentrated growth," said Marsico. "It really forces us to have a rigorous research approach and really drill down and select best-in-class names."
Stock Pickers Deliver
Marsico Global is a stock picker's fund designed to deliver benchmark-beating returns consistently over time.
The fund's long-term record shows the strategy of owning growth stocks headquartered around the world benefiting from game-changing investment themes with staying power is profitable.
Marsico Global is a 2025 IBD Best Mutual Fund Awards winner. That means its returns have topped its market benchmark in the past one-, three-, five- and 10 year periods.
The fund is off to a bullish start in 2025. Marsico Global's 20.8% total return through July 3 topped 97% of its peers, according to fund-tracker Morningstar Direct. The top-performing mutual fund's long-term gains are equally impressive. It sports a 10-year annualized return of 13.77%. That bests 95% of competing funds in its category. A $10,000 investment in Marsico Global 10 years ago has grown to $38,421, according to Morningstar.
Flexibility is key to the global fund's success, says Marsico. In today's world, he says, innovation and consumption are deeply interconnected. The $445 million fund had 55% of its assets invested in U.S. companies. And it put 45% in foreign names as of April 30, according to Morningstar.
What This Top Mutual Fund Looks For
Marsico Global looks for stocks that are well-positioned to grow sales and earnings for a long time. The top mutual fund seeks companies on the cutting edge and profiting from emerging trends. It also looks for thematic changes driving global commerce, such as digitization, mobile and artificial intelligence (AI).
"We are thematic investors," said Marsico. "We identify trends that can potentially be decades long. We look for companies that can both benefit from and drive these trends."
Marsico Global looks for a few key traits in large-cap companies. The fund managers like strong, dynamic management teams. Companies with strong pricing power and strong cash flow are also must-have attributes. Marsico Global also likes companies with adept management teams that opportunistically reinvest profits in new business models. These models drive change and seek fresh ways to monetize their significant scale.
Often, Marsico Global identifies the winning business models that are working in the U.S. It then scouts for foreign companies profiting from the same trend overseas. In many cases, the foreign companies are selling at a discount to U.S. companies.
"We can kind of press the bet on stuff we're seeing, the companies that are benefiting from secular trends, such as AI adoption or electrification, whether in the U.S. or abroad," says Marsico.
Find First Mover Advantage
Marsico takes note of American first movers. And he searches for foreign companies profiting from the trend in their own domestic markets.
A good example, Marsico says, is the global rush to build out AI infrastructure. "It has created this explosive demand for power generation," said Marsico.
To take advantage of the investment opportunity, Marsico Global owns GE Vernova, a U.S.-based leader in power generation. But the fund also owns Siemens Energy, a German company that designs and produces gas and wind turbines, renewable energy and smart-grid technology.
"At the time we looked at Siemens, it had a very similar opportunity, but it was trading at almost half the multiple that you're seeing GE Genova trade at," said Marsico.
Siemens Energy, which Marsico first purchased in February, is now a top-10 holding. And it has a 4.18% weighting in Marsico Global, according to Morningstar. The stock, which traded at $55 at the end of February, is now trading above $92 a share.
The opportunistic purchase of Siemens Energy highlights the flexibility of the family-run mutual fund and its ability to be nimble when good stock entry points materialize. "When we see an opportunity, we're able to move very quickly," said Marsico.
Spotting Global Trends
The fund has a knack for seeing parallels between U.S. stock market winners and similar trajectories of foreign stocks leveraging similar trends.
A good example is Marsico Global's bullish experience with U.S. streaming service Netflix. That urged the fund to invest in Sweden-based Spotify Technology, a music, podcast and audio books streaming service. Both companies, which are leaders in streaming and digital transformation, are top 10 holdings, according to Morningstar.
Netflix's ability to capitalize on the growth of streaming and customer adoption led to strong free-cash-flow generation. That's a bullish data point that Wall Street underestimated early on, says Marsico.
"We synthesized that information and looked at Spotify, which despite burning through cash flow early on, had similar dynamics for consumption that were occurring on mobile devices," said Marsico. "We identified Spotify as a streaming service with a differentiated product. Our belief was Spotify would be able to drive strong earnings performance. Margin improvement was very much underestimated by the market. It was a playbook that we very much saw on Netflix, on the domestic side, as they also expanded globally in nature."
Like most winning stocks, valuation that early on is lower than peers eventually plays catch-up. And that boosts the stock price, says Marsico. Another bullish driver for Spotify is founder Daniel Ek. He moved quickly to trim costs to drive profits, adds Marsico.
Top Mutual Fund Goes Global
And like many Wall Street experts, Marsico sees opportunities now in foreign stocks after a decade of U.S. stock outperformance. Marsico Global, which normally has a 60/40 mix of U.S. vs. foreign stocks now has 45% invested in non-U.S. companies, Morningstar data show.
"International stocks have started to catch up," said Marsico. "Global investors are starting to recognize that there are valuation gaps that existed between U.S. names and these international companies that really had similar exposures."
Marsico says SAP, a leader in enterprise application software that is the top holding in Marsico Global, has a similar type of migration path that Microsoft had. The difference is SAP was trading at a relative discount compared with its peers. At the same time, its business metrics were improving.
"The overall environment to invest globally has improved," said Marsico. As a result, "you've seen some of these newer companies pop up" on our radar.
Rolling Into Profit
Another top 10 holding that Marsico likes is Rolls-Royce, the U.K.-based company known for its luxury automobiles. But it is also dominant in the commercial and military aircraft engine space.
Marsico is more bullish on Rolls-Royce's aviation business. It is capitalizing on the trend of family formation happening later in life and the resulting shift to consumers prioritizing travel and experiences.
Add in the heightened geopolitical risk in today's world and the resulting higher spending on defense, and Rolls-Royce's investment thesis comes into sharper focus, says Marsico.
"There are elevated levels of military spending in Western Europe," said Marsico. "So, you see really strong order books across the board for Rolls-Royce."
Top Mutual Fund Dives Into AI
When it comes to AI, virtually all the stocks Marsico Global owns benefit from the build out, says Marsico.
"The companies that will start benefiting from this kind of AI infrastructure are also in the fund, whether it is Meta Platforms using AI to help improve (its) advertising business, or Spotify or Netflix using AI to help improve their recommendation engines," said Marsico. "AI is a portfoliowide theme, because all these businesses have the ability to benefit greatly from what you're seeing in AI."
Marsico Global owns companies that can perform in the face of geopolitical uncertainty as well as unknowns related to tariffs, interest rates and other market uncertainties, says Marsico.
"Of a lot of times, you can get shaken out of investing in a theme that really can withstand and have duration despite what's going on," says Marsico. "We try to find those companies that have strong pricing power and can really withstand some of these different issues."
Aiming For Luxury
A good example of companies Marsico Global owns that are built to last are Italian high-end automaker Ferrari NV and French luxe retailer Hermes International.
"The overall duration of their brands, as well as ability to hold price and still have consumer demand, particularly on the high end, is one thing that we really value and have comfort holding," said Marsico.
Marsico is also bullish on Nintendo, the Japanese gaming company. He dubs the company "a combination of Apple and Walt Disney. The company started off mainly as a hardware device company via its Nintendo Switch game console. It is now morphing into a software business. Another plus is its move toward the cloud. This extends Nintendo's product reach globally.
"That improves the overall attractiveness of the fundamentals of the business and smooths out profit growth," said Marsico.
Hoping For Peace
Looking ahead, Marsico is hoping for good macro news, such as the U.S. getting trade deals done with trading partners and a less chaotic geopolitical backdrop in places like Ukraine, Israel and Gaza.
"That could really set in motion a strong market," said Marsico.
Marsico sums up the Marsico Global fund's success like this: "Our goal is identifying those innovative companies that have the ability to compound growth, take share from competitors and find new profit drivers over long periods of times. A lot of times that just manifests itself into capital appreciation."
