Hartford Funds, a segment of The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. (HIG), had total assets of around $102.2 billion under management (as of Mar 31, 2020). The company claims to manage at least 50 mutual funds across a wide range of styles and asset classes. Hartford Financial Services was founded in 1810 and is a well-recognized insurer in the United States.

Hartford Funds focuses on meeting and even exceeding “traditional industry benchmarks” through “human-centric investing.” The company believes that human-centric investing can help creating solutions, products, and advisor tools, which in turn, strengthen the bottom line and improve advisor-client relationships.

Below we share with you three top-ranked Hartford mutual funds. Each has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or # 2 (Buy) and is expected to outperform peers in the future.

Hartford Balanced HLS Fund Class IA (HADAX - Free Report) invests the majority of its assets in equity securities and a smaller portion in debt securities and cash instruments. Although the fund can invest across all market capitalizations, it may especially focus on investing in securities of large-capitalization companies. HADAX returned 6.1% over the past three years.

Michael E. Stack has been one of the fund managers of HADAX since 2015.

Hartford Small Cap Growth HLS Fund Class IB (HBSGX - Free Report) invests the bulk of its assets in common stocks of small-cap companies with impressive growth prospects. The fund may invest about one-fifth of its assets in securities of non-U.S. companies. HBSGX has three-year annualized returns of 4.4%.

As of the end of April 2020, HBSGX held 167 issues, with 1.6% of its assets invested in Five9 Inc.

Hartford Stock HLS Fund Class IB (HIBSX - Free Report) seeks capital appreciation over the long run. Though HIBSX invests in equity securities of companies irrespective of their market capitalization, a significant portion of its assets are from securities of companies with market capitalization similar to those listed on the Russell 1000 index. The fund may also invest a maximum of 20% of its assets in securities of foreign companies. HIBSX has three-year annualized returns of 9.4%.

HIBSXhas an expense ratio of 0.79% as compared with the category average of 0.93%.