Fund Evaluator:

Allspring Innovation Fund - Class Inst Overview

Allspring Innovation Fund - Class Inst (WFTIX) is an actively managed Sector Equity Technology fund. Allspring Global Investments launched the fund in 2016.

The investment seeks long-term capital appreciation. Under normal circumstances, the fund invests: at least 80% of the fund's net assets in equity securities; up to 25% of the fund's total assets in equity securities of foreign issuers, including up to 15% of the fund's total assets in equity securities of emerging markets issuers, directly or through ADRs and similar investments. It invests primarily in equity securities of companies of any market capitalization that the manager believes offer the potential for capital growth and are relevant to the fund’s investment theme of innovation. It is non-diversified.

About Allspring Innovation Fund - Class Inst (WFTIX)

There are 3 members of the management team with an average tenure of 3.42 years: Michael Smith (2022), Christopher Warner (2022), Robert Gruendyke (2024). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 1 primary benchmark: S&P 500 (TR) (1970) index with a weighting of 100%. Allspring Innovation Fund - Class Inst has 67 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 35.1% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a nondiversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

Allspring Innovation Fund - Class Inst is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the Sector Equity fund group. Allspring Innovation Fund - Class Inst has 13.8% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 84.8%. There is 13.8% 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). Allspring Innovation Fund - Class Inst has 1.4% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $14 million in total assets, which is below the $1 billion average for the Technology 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.

WFTIX 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 Allspring Innovation Fund - Class Inst expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Technology category. Allspring Innovation Fund - Class Inst has an expense ratio of 0.90%, which is 27% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a B. 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. Allspring Innovation Fund - Class Inst has a portfolio turnover rate of 90%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 78% for the Technology category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, Allspring Innovation Fund - Class Inst returned -10.2%, which earned it a grade of D, as the Technology category had an average return of -8.6%. 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.

Allspring Innovation Fund - Class Inst has a trailing yield of 0.00%, which is below the 0.05% 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.

Allspring Innovation Fund - Class Inst Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 2.4%, 19.0 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of F. The fund has returned -2.2% over the past year (grade of F), 10.3% over the past three years (grade of F) and 1.7% per year over the past five years (grade of F) and 15.2% per year over the past 10 years (grade of F).

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