scroll

Growth and Small Cap portfolio returns

Advanced Search

Our Q&As are emailed in our Saturday Morning Report, find the answer to this question below.

Ask a question

The Latest Q&A

Question asked 24/10/2026

Growth and Small Cap portfolio returns

Hi MM, Thanks for you all your excellent work breaking down and distilling the market complexity and noise into actionable insights; it's invaluable for those of us time poor souls working 10 hour days and stuck in endless meetings most of the day. I must admit I have had some reticence with MM buys in the growth and small cap portfolios and given the 3yr and 5yr returns, I wondered if you could share your thoughts and analysis on performance to date and what your aspirations are for closing the gap to the international or income portfolios? Being active managers, I'm sure you would be asking these questions of yourselves as any good fund manager would, so I hope I'm not out of line! Lastly, have you had any change of heart of CDA and EOS? Both seem to hold untapped potential as tech stocks hiding in plain sight, but CDA has jumped 40% while EOS perhaps has the potential to.

Answer

Hi Nick,

You’re right – it’s been a tougher period recently in the Growth and particularly the Emerging Companies Portfolio relative to the Income and International Equities. We covered how we are addressing this in a letter to members in July, which can be read here.

In terms of Codan (CDA) and Electro Systems (EOS) they are both Australian technology businesses with exposure to defence and security, although their operations differ considerably. Codan is a diversified communications and technology company, while EOS is a more specialised defence technology business.

The issue for MM is that while they’ve had great, albeit at times volatile moves, we believe from a defence spending perspective we could be in an “as good as it gets” position and we’re more inclined to remain on the sidelines as opposed to succumbing to any FOMO (Fear of missing out).

chart

Codan Ltd (CDA)

LAST UPDATED 23/10/2026 11:05

Latest Reports

Weekend report 24/10/2026

Weekend Q&A: We need a weekend after the last few days!

The ASX 200 finished a volatile week, especially at the stock and sector level, with an 8% drop in the materials sector dragging down the broader market by just 0.1% despite almost 60% of the main boards closing higher. However, when we see heavyweight miners South32 (-11%), Sandfire (-10%), BHP Group (-8%), and RIO Tinto (-6%), it was always going to be tough for the index to advance.

Afternoon report 23/10/2026

The Match Out: Banks and retailers keep ASX afloat as miners slide

The ASX spent most of the session trading lower off the back of a weaker session playing out in the US, particularly Tech overnight. Banks and consumer-facing stocks provided a lift, but the modest gain masked a sharp divide across the market.