Fund Evaluator:

American Century Utilities Inv Overview

American Century Utilities Inv (BULIX) is an actively managed Sector Equity Utilities fund. American Century Investments launched the fund in 1993.

The investment seeks current income and long-term growth of capital and income. Under normal market conditions, the fund invests at least 80% of its net assets in equity securities of companies engaged in the utilities industry. The portfolio managers use quantitative and qualitative management techniques as well as risk controls to construct the fund's portfolio. The quantitative process involves ranking stocks based on their growth and valuation characteristics.

About American Century Utilities Inv (BULIX)

There are 3 members of the management team with an average tenure of 6.51 years: Yulin Long (2010), Stephen Quance (2023), Mattia Bacciardi (2025). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: S&P 500 (TR) (1970) index with a weighting of 100% and S&P 500 Sec/Utilities TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. American Century Utilities Inv has 41 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 52.4% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

American Century Utilities Inv is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the Sector Equity fund group. American Century Utilities Inv has 0.0% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 99.3%. There is 0.0% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 0.0% (0.0% domestic bond, 0.0% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). American Century Utilities Inv has 0.7% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $299 million in total assets, which is below the $517 million average for the Utilities category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

BULIX Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The American Century Utilities Inv expense ratio is above average compared to funds in the Utilities category. American Century Utilities Inv has an expense ratio of 0.65%, which is 42% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a A. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. American Century Utilities Inv has a portfolio turnover rate of 77%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 53% for the Utilities category.

Recently, in the month of June 2026, American Century Utilities Inv returned 2.5%, which earned it a grade of B, as the Utilities category had an average return of 2.1%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all funds in that category.

American Century Utilities Inv has a trailing yield of 1.96%, which is below the 3.02% category average. The fund normally distributes its income quarterly and its capital gains semi-annually.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

American Century Utilities Inv Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 8.4%, 0.0 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of C. The fund has returned 15.0% over the past year (grade of C), 16.0% over the past three years (grade of B) and 9.4% per year over the past five years (grade of C) and 6.5% per year over the past 10 years (grade of F).

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