Capital Group Growth ETF CGGR

Increased confidence in Capital Group Growth ETF’s seasoned leadership and strong supporting cast drives a People rating upgrade to High from Above Average, while the fund maintains an Above Average Process rating.

Although this exchange-traded fund only launched in early 2022, it’s overseen by firm veterans with extensive experience running a similar vehicle. Seven named managers each run individual sleeves here, all with at least 20 years of experience at the firm and have the flexibility to pursue their highest-conviction ideas. Alan Wilson heads up the strategy and has more than 35 years of investment experience, serving as a manager on the comparable longer-dated vehicle since 2014.

The managers employ a flexible, diversified growth approach that looks different from the concentrated Russell 1000 Growth category index. They diversify across sectors and companies and can invest in overseas firms generating meaningful US revenue. As the growth index has become more top-heavy—Nvidia and Apple each exceeding 10% of index assets—the strategy has remained less concentrated. As of February 2026, its top 10 holdings represented 41% of assets versus 61% in the index.

A complementary mix of managers has supported solid results. Since this ETF was launched in February 2022, through February 2026, it outpaced the growth index by 13 basis points annualized and substantially outperformed the large-growth Morningstar Category average. The ETF is similar to a longer-dated variable-insurance series offering, American Funds IS Growth 1. Since Wilson joined that vehicle in May 2014 through February 2026, the series 16.6% annualized gain bested the S&P 500’s 13.6% (its broad-market prospectus benchmark) and the category index’s 16.3%. (The ETF has similar fees to the insurance vehicle.) Early on, the variable-insurance series vehicle benefited from manager Andraz Razen’s long-term conviction in Tesla. In 2025, the ETF landed in the top quintile of peers, thanks in part to a handful of tech picks such as Micron Technology, SK Hynix, Broadcom, and Shopify outperforming.

This ETF's 0.39% net expense ratio places it among the large-growth category’s cheapest actively managed funds, and its ETF structure enhances tax efficiency, making it a topnotch option.

The strategy’s flexible-growth approach earns an Above Average Process rating.

Seven disclosed managers and two analyst teams run separate portfolio sleeves here, leading to a differentiated portfolio. Some of them prefer traditional growth stocks, others fallen angels, and still others cyclical names, though all take long-term views, leading to below-average annual portfolio turnover. Dividing the portfolio into separately run sleeves allows managers to stick with their highest-conviction picks and allows the strategy to benefit from varied market conditions.

The strategy’s investment universe is widespread. The fund offers broad diversification across sectors and companies. For example, while the Russell 1000 Growth Index’s top 10 holdings accounted for 61% of assets as of February 2026, the strategy’s top 10 only accounted for 41% of assets. The managers also can part ways with the prospectus S&P 500 benchmark and the category Russell 1000 Growth Index by investing up to one-fourth of combined assets overseas.

While this ETF only launched in February 2022, it mimics the firm’s variable-insurance series growth offering. Together, the managers oversee roughly USD 75 billion in assets, and while it’s nimbler than the firm’s comparable mutual fund counterpart, American Funds Growth Fund of America, as it gathers assets, its size will be something to monitor. The managers each run allocations ranging from 9% to 17% of strategy assets, with the analyst teams and a few undisclosed managers running portions. This structure gives the named managers’ portions enough weight so that their individual picks can have a meaningful impact on the aggregate.

The strategy holds a diverse portfolio of roughly 220 stocks (with the ETF holding a subset), and company-level research drives the strategy’s sector positioning, which often stands out from that of the Russell 1000 Growth Index. For instance, the strategy has kept a double-digit tech underweighting since mid-2018, and its 30% stake was 20 percentage points underweight the growth benchmark’s 50% allocation as of February 2026. The strategy is significantly underweighting in the growth index’s top holdings, Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft. It more closely tracks the prospectus S&P 500 benchmark’s sector allocations.

The strategy had healthy allocations to consumer discretionary and communication services, each accounting for roughly 15% of assets. Those allocations were overweight relative to both indexes. The fund counted Meta Platforms and Tesla as its top two holdings as of February 2026.

While giant and large caps generally dominate the portfolio, the strategy does have a meaningful allocation down the market-cap spectrum. Its allocations to mid- and small-cap stocks stand out. Those two segments held more than 23% of the strategy’s assets in February, almost double the growth index’s 12.5%.

The managers also stash a healthy amount of assets overseas, though the companies need to derive significant revenue from the US. Non-US companies held roughly 8.2% of assets in February 2026. Top non-US holdings included Shopify, TSMC, SK Hynix, and Constellation Software.

Increased conviction in this multimanager strategy’s impressive management team and robust supporting cast earns a People rating upgrade to High from Above Average.

While this ETF only launched in early 2022, it’s in the hands of firm veterans who have a longer track record on a similar vehicle. This fund tracks the firm’s variable-insurance series growth offering, which dates to the mid-1980s. Seven named managers run individual sleeves here, each with at least 20 years of experience at Capital Group, the parent of American Funds.

Capital Group has split the strategy's assets between subsidiaries Capital International Investors and Capital World Investors since July 2018. Alan Wilson heads up the whole strategy and CWI’s team, which includes Andraz Razen, Julian Abdey, and Paul Benjamin. Wilson has more than 35 years of investment experience and has served as a manager here since 2014. Irfan Furniturewala leads CII’s group, which includes Mark Casey and Anne-Marie Peterson. Diversity of investment styles is a strength here as each manager can ply their unique approach to this large-growth category mandate. The CII and CWI teams each draw on about 50 analysts, some of whom oversee their own slices of the portfolio.

After a firmwide self-assessment of the investment group in late 2025, two managers changed subsidiaries but remain in the fund. These moves should have minimal impact.

All managers invest at least USD 1 million each in the strategy.

Capital Group stands out from the pack as it enhances capabilities around strong core competencies. It earns a High Parent rating.

Since 1931, Capital Group, parent of American Funds, has thoughtfully built out capabilities to become one of the world’s largest asset managers, managing more than USD 3 trillion dollars. Building on the success of its long-term-oriented, multiple-manager system for global equities, the firm has developed robust fixed-income and multi-asset units, each managing more than USD 500 billion. In January 2026, as part of its periodic review of its now five distinct research organizations, Capital Group implemented changes to its equity investment subsidiaries. This exercise resulted in most equity strategies having at least one portfolio manager change, but according to the firm, it better balances each of Capital Group’s three equity groups in terms of investment breadth and helps the firm better align leadership opportunities across the groups. These kinds of shifts have occurred before, with the last coming in 2018.

Capital Group has also turned its attention to some modern opportunities. To address public/private market convergence trends, it launched in April 2025 two semiliquid funds with private market giant KKR. In keeping with its signature portfolio management approach, it splits those funds into multiple sleeves, which are managed independently by distinct managers at each firm. Capital Group plans to deepen this relationship with target-date and model portfolios, as well as public/private equity funds. On the other end of the spectrum, although the firm is firmly dedicated to active management, it has also acknowledged investor preference for passive investing and has thus partnered with indexing stalwarts Vanguard, BlackRock, and Schwab on active/passive models. Capital Group’s proven investment prowess, strong reputation among investors, and scale mean it can be selective with its partnerships.

In addressing another recent trend, since early 2022, the firm has launched more than 25 active exchange-traded funds globally, most of which are distinct, but several are similar to some of its legacy American Funds mutual funds. Unlike some of its peers, though, it has not filed for SEC exemptive relief to offer ETFs as a share class.

That’s a lot of change for such a storied and sizable firm, but Capital Group has a long history of serving investors well.

Since the ETF’s February 2022 launch through March 2026, it outpaced the Russell 1000 Growth Index by 13 basis points annualized. It is similar to the firm’s growth insurance series offering, American Funds IS Growth 1, which dates to the mid-1980s. Since Alan Wilson joined that vehicle in May 2014 through February 2026, its 16.6% annualized gain bested the S&P 500’s 13.6% (its broad-market prospectus benchmark), the large-growth category norm’s 13.2%, and the category Russell 1000 Growth Index’s 16.3%. (The ETF has similar fees to this vehicle.) During that span, it also outpaced its comparable mutual fund counterpart, American Funds Growth Fund of America, by 2.4 percentage points annualized.

While the strategy has typically been as volatile as the large-growth index, the emphasis on large firms with broad market exposure has given it resilience in many down markets. That includes 2018’s brief fourth-quarter pullback and 2020’s coronavirus-driven bear market. However, it lost more than both indexes in 2022, due to a handful of picks such as Tesla and Meta Platforms. In early 2025’s pullback, driven by tariff uncertainty, the fund held up better than the category norm and the growth index but lost more than the S&P 500.

As growth stocks rebounded in 2023 and 2024, the strategy lagged the large-growth index in large part due to its substantial underweighting in technology. But in 2025, it bested both indexes and landed in the top quintile of the category, thanks in part to a handful of tech picks such as Micron Technology, SK Hynix, Broadcom, and Shopify outperforming.

Capital Group Growth ETF's Prospectus Adjusted Expense Ratio is 0.39% per year. It places it in the cheapest quintile of the Morningstar US Fund Large Growth Category, where the median fee is 0.82% per year. This cost positioning translates into a Medalist Rating Price Score of 2.05, which reflects its relative price positioning within the category. The Price Score ranges from -2.50 (most expensive) to +2.50 (cheapest), with higher scores indicating better cost competitiveness.