Investors with a high-risk appetite and an interest in growth and value investing may choose small-cap blend mutual funds to boost their portfolio. While blend funds, also known as “hybrid funds,” aim for value appreciation through capital gains, small-cap funds have better growth prospects than their large and medium counterparts. Blend funds provide significant exposure to growth and value stocks, and owe their origin to a graphical representation of a fund’s equity style box.
Funds investing the majority of their assets in securities of companies with a market capitalization below $2 billion are generally considered small-cap mutual funds. Although funds investing in small-cap stocks are believed to have more exposure to market volatility than large or medium ones, they are expected to provide diversification across sectors and companies. Moreover, small-cap companies are believed to be less affected by a global downturn, thanks to less international exposure.
Below, we share with you three top-ranked small-cap blend mutual funds, namely American Century Small Company Investor ASQIX, T. Rowe Price Integrated U.S. Small-Mid Cap Core Equity Fund TQSMX and Fidelity Series Small Cap Opportunities Fund FSOPX. Each has earned a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and is expected to outperform its peers in the future. Investors can click here to see the complete list of funds.
American Century Small Company Investor primarily invests in stocks of smaller U.S. companies, including REITs, with small companies defined by market value relative to the largest company in the Russell 2000 Index. The fund has returned 19.4% over the past three years.
As of December 2025, ASQIX held 286 issues, with 1.6% of its assets invested in Commercial Metals.
T. Rowe Price Integrated U.S. Small-Mid Cap Core Equity Fund invests primarily in equity securities of smaller and midsize U.S. companies, mainly through common stocks. The adviser targets firms whose market value aligns with those included in a broad U.S. index of smaller and midsize companies. The fund has returned 21.5% over the past three years.
TQSMX has an expense ratio of 0.87%.
Fidelity Series Small Cap Opportunities Fund primarily invests in common stocks and typically allocates the vast majority of its net assets to small-cap companies. The fund has returned 22.7% over the past three years.
Jennifer Fo Cardillo has been one of the fund managers of FSOPX since November 2021.
To view the Zacks Rank and the past performance of all small-cap blend mutual funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of small-cap blend mutual funds.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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