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Today I wanted to continue our series on the Top 5 mutual funds available to investors in all different categories. Today the category we will look at is the midcap growth area. The midcap growth area is a nice area because it generally gives the fund managers a little more freedom as to the size of the stocks that they pick. Many midcap funds have some large cap stocks in them as well as some small caps.

Here are the Top 5:

1. Janus Orion Fund (JORNX)- Morningstar 5 Stars, This fund is a concentrated fund which normally holds no more than 25 or 30 stocks at one time. The fund has about 45% of its assets in its top 10 stocks. The results here are amazing. The fund has returned 22.68% on average over the last 5 years, and 25.53% on average over the last 3 years. Manager Ron Sachs has been at the helm since its inception in 2000.
2. Hartford Growth Opportunities (HAGOX) Morningstar 5 stars, This fund has primarily gone under the radar, but its returns are tremendous. No loads and an expense ratio of just 0.63% just make this fund even more attractive. The fund has averaged 24.06% in the past 3 years.
3. Brandywine Advisors (BWAFX)- Morningstar 4 stars, The fund has returned 21.08% over the past 3 years. The management team has been in place since 2001. There are no loads associated with the fund and the expense ratio of 1.18% is very reasonable.
4. Thornburg Core Growth A (THCGX)- Morningstar 5 stars, The fund has returned an average of 26.49% over the last years, good enough to rank in the top 2% of all midcap funds. Alexander Motola has managed the fund since 2001. The fund does carry a 4.5% front end load, which keeps the fund from ranking any higher than this.
5. Dreyfus Founders Midcap Growth A (FRSDX)- Morningstar 5 stars, This fund would be rated higher on the list if it hadn't just gotten new managers a few months ago. The fund has consistently outpaced its peers and has no loads and a minimum initial investment of just $1,000.

I highly recommend investors have at least one midcap fund in their portfolio since midcaps do tend to be a little more multicap than any of the other funds, and their returns have been very impressive.

These five funds are what I believe to the Top 5 Midcap growth funds available to investors. Use this list as a guide when doing your own research as to what midcap growth fund to include in your own portfolio.