Eaton Vance, founded in 1924 and based in Boston, MA, is part of Morgan Stanley Investment Management. It has a wide range of mutual funds including equity, income and alternative strategies. Eaton Vance emphasizes sustainable investing and provides advisory services through Eaton Vance Management and Calvert Research and Management. Its global offices located in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, make it an attractive choice for investments.

We have chosen three Eaton Vance mutual funds — Eaton Vance Balanced Fund EVIFX, Parametric Commodity Strategy Fund EAPCX and Eaton Vance Stock Fund EAERX — that investors should buy now for the long term. These funds have a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy), positive three-year and five-year annualized returns, minimum initial investments within $5000 and expense ratios considerably lower than the category average. So, these funds have provided a comparatively stronger performance and carry a lower fee.

Eaton Vance Balanced Fund seeks to achieve its investment goal by distributing assets between common stocks and fixed-income securities.

Brian S. Ellis has been the lead manager of EVIFX since June 27, 2017. Most of the fund’s holdings were in Eaton Vance Stock Portfolio (65.2%), Eaton Vance Investment Grade (34.9%) and Cash (0.1%) as of June 30, 2024.

EVIFX’s 3-year and 5-year returns are 6.8% and 9.4%, respectively. EVIFX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 and an annual expense ratio of 0.97%.

To see how this fund performed compared to its category, and other 1 and 2 Ranked Mutual Funds, please click here.

Parametric Commodity Strategy Fund invests in commodity-linked derivative instruments such as commodity index-linked swap agreements, futures and commodity-linked notes backed by fixed-income securities, including U.S. Treasury securities and money market instruments.

Gregory J. Liebl has been the lead manager of EAPCX since May 1, 2018. Most of the fund’s holdings were in short-term investments (84.3%), Others (10.5%) and SPDR Gold MiniShares (5.3%) as of June 30, 2024.

EAPCX’s 3-year and 5-year annualized returns are 8.7% and 12.4%, respectively. EAPCX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 and an annual expense ratio of 0.90%.

Eaton Vance Stock Fund invests most of its assets in common stocks. EAERX advisors also choose to invest in foreign securities from companies in both developed and emerging markets.

Charles B. Gaffney has been the lead manager of EAERX since Nov. 1, 2007. Most of the fund’s holdings were in Microsoft Corp (8.4%), NVIDIA Corp (7.2%) and Apple Inc. (7.2%) as of June 30, 2024.

EAERX’s 3-year and 5-year returns are 12.7% and 15.5%, respectively. EAERX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #2 and an annual expense ratio of 0.98%.

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