These are the top funds in five major categories, ranked according to three-year returns. We primarily consider funds with managers in place for at least three years; the only exceptions are managers with at least three years’ experience in a similar capacity. We don’t rank funds with front or back-end loads greater than 3 percent or funds that are closed to new investors, have less than $25 million in assets, have minimums of $10,000 or more, have trust restrictions or are single-state muni-bond funds. All data as of 04/30/09.

Source: Morningstar, Bloomberg

THE LOUIS RUKEYSER HONOR ROLL

Funds that have been on The Rukeyser 100 more than 80 percent of the past three years (at least 29 out of 36 months) make it onto The Louis Rukeyser Honor Roll. Their names are in green and marked with laurels.

Funds Added This Month

Pin Oak Aggressive Stock
Reaves Select Research
Dreyfus Small Company Value
Reynolds Blue Chip Growth
Parnassus Small-Cap
Parnassus
Integrity Growth & Income
T Rowe Price Personal Strat Income
Fidelity Select Consumer Staples
AmCent Utilities
Gabelli Utilities AAA
T Rowe Price Health Sciences
FBR Gas Utility Index
T Rowe Price New Asia
Fidelity Ginnie Mae
Value Line Convertible
Fidelity New Markets Income

Funds Dropped This Month

Wells Fargo Adv Discovery
AmCent Vista
Neuberger Berman Genesis
CGM Focus
Osterweis
Jensen J
Heartland Value Plus
Vanguard Wellesley Income
Fidelity Select Gold
GAMCO Gold AAA
US Global Investors Gold Shares
AmCent Global Gold
Tocqueville Gold
Artisan International Value
T Rowe Price US Treasury Intermediate
Fidelity Convertible Securities
Managers Global Bond

On the Move

The focus of American Century Vista (TWCVX) fell out of favor this month as investors reached for purer aggressive growth plays in the stock markets–healthier risk appetites generated more interest in small-cap stocks–causing the fund to drop out of our aggressive growth category.

Management’s focus on quality mid-caps with solid earnings potential has led to the fund being overweight on consumer services, specifically lower-end retailers. One interesting feature of the fund’s portfolio is a growing stake in homebuilders; Fogle and Eixmann continue to add to positions in Pulte Homes (NYSE: PHM) and NVR (NYSE: NVR).

Although the fund will likely experience more ups and downs over the next six months, its prospects look solid over a longer horizon.

Gold prices gave up ground in April largely because of a strengthening dollar, but in May the trend reversed. Gold prices are once again on the rise thanks to doubts about the sovereign credit rating of the US and a highly leveraged Federal Reserve balance sheet. Expect July to be a glittering month for our industry sector category.