Fund Evaluator:

Sit Small Cap Growth Overview

Sit Small Cap Growth (SSMGX) is an actively managed U.S. Equity Mid-Cap Growth fund. Sit launched the fund in 1994.

The investment seeks to maximize long-term capital appreciation. The fund seeks to achieve its objective by investing, under normal market conditions, at least 80% of its net assets in common stocks of companies with capitalizations at the time of purchase of up to $3.0 billion, or up to the market capitalization of the largest company included in the Russell 2000® Index measured at the end of the previous twelve months. The Russell 2000® Index measures the performance of the 2,000 smallest companies in the Russell 3000® Index (which is made up of the 3,000 largest U.S. companies based on total market capitalization).

About Sit Small Cap Growth (SSMGX)

There are 3 members of the management team with an average tenure of 23.15 years: Robert Sit (1997), Kent Johnson (2003), Roger Sit (2008). 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%. Sit Small Cap Growth has 88 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 37.8% 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.

Sit Small Cap Growth is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the U.S. Equity fund group. Sit Small Cap Growth has 5.4% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 90.5%. There is 5.4% 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). Sit Small Cap Growth has 4.1% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $144 million in total assets, which is below the $686 million average for the Mid-Cap 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.

SSMGX 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 Sit Small Cap Growth expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Mid-Cap Growth category. Sit Small Cap Growth has an expense ratio of 1.50%, which is 37% higher than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a F. 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. Sit Small Cap Growth has a portfolio turnover rate of 11%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.1 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 76% for the Mid-Cap Growth category.

Recently, in the month of June 2026, Sit Small Cap Growth returned 5.1%, which earned it a grade of B, as the Mid-Cap Growth category had an average return of 3.7%. 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.

Sit Small Cap Growth has a trailing yield of 0.00%, which is below the 0.03% category average. The fund normally distributes its income annually and its capital gains 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.

Sit Small Cap Growth Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 22.2%, 10.4 percentage points better than the category, which translates into a grade of A. The fund has returned 33.9% over the past year (grade of A), 16.1% over the past three years (grade of B) and 6.4% per year over the past five years (grade of B) and 11.9% per year over the past 10 years (grade of C).

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