The numbers put up by the Mairs & Power Growth fund are the stuff of dreams. Over the past ten years this fund has returned an average 16.1% annually, a head-turning 6 percentage points better than the S&P 500. This year it is up 11%, slightly behind the S&P. And Mairs & Power Growth does well in both up and down markets. During the market's recent unpleasantness, the $1.1 billion (assets) fund recorded two positive years―2000, up 26%, and 2001, up 6%―and only dipped into negative territory in 2002, down 8%, its only losing year since the 1987 crash. Small wonder the fund is a stalwart of our Honor Roll, now making its fourth consecutive appearance on that august list (see p. 162), as well as being a perennial on our Best Buy roster (p. 171). We give it an A in down markets and a C in up ones. Its low expense of 78 cents per $100 is another laudable feature. Like creeping rust, expenses eat away at returns, present and future. Run from rented office space in St. Paul, Minn., the fund is fanatical about thrift: It does its own trading, runs no ads and invests mainly in midwestern companies a short drive away.
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