Fund Evaluator:

Empower Small Cap Growth Investor Overview

Empower Small Cap Growth Investor (MXMTX) is an actively managed U.S. Equity Small Growth fund. Empower Funds launched the fund in 2015.

The investment seeks long-term capital appreciation. The fund will, under normal circumstances, invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in equity securities of small capitalization companies. For purposes of the 80% policy, the fund's managers consider small cap companies to be those whose market capitalization falls within the range of the Russell 2000 ® Index at the time of initial purchase.

About Empower Small Cap Growth Investor (MXMTX)

There are 8 members of the management team with an average tenure of 6.81 years: Ryan Smith (2021), Matthew DeCicco (2015), Allison Lewis (2023), Vernon Bice (2019), Samuel Smith (2021), Benjamin Ebel (2026), Paul von Kuster (2015), F. O’Halloran (2015). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: Russell 3000 TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and Russell 2000 Growth TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Empower Small Cap Growth Investor has 185 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 13.2% 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.

Empower Small Cap Growth Investor is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the U.S. Equity fund group. Empower Small Cap Growth Investor has 2.9% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 97.1%. There is 2.9% 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). Empower Small Cap Growth Investor has 0.0% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $5 million in total assets, which is below the $431 million average for the Small Growth 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.

MXMTX 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 Empower Small Cap Growth Investor expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Small Growth category. Empower Small Cap Growth Investor has an expense ratio of 1.19%, which is 1% higher than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a C. 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. Empower Small Cap Growth Investor has a portfolio turnover rate of 70%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 78% for the Small Growth category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, Empower Small Cap Growth Investor returned -7.3%, which earned it a grade of C, as the Small Growth category had an average return of -6.7%. 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.

Empower Small Cap Growth Investor has a trailing yield of 0.35%, which is above the 0.06% category average.

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.

Empower Small Cap Growth Investor Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 10.7%, 2.9 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of D. The fund has returned 19.8% over the past year (grade of D), 9.6% over the past three years (grade of D) and 3.2% per year over the past five years (grade of C) and 10.8% per year over the past 10 years (grade of C).

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