Be defensive and don’t be afraid of interest rate risk, said Edward Perkin, portfolio manager for the Eaton Vance Focused Value Opportunities Fund (EIFVX). ‘Now that we’ve had this recent rally, I think it’s back to being defensive and a little bit cautious and favoring higher quality stocks,’ said Perkin. ‘Many of those high quality names are dividend payers which people worry about owning with the Fed likely to raise rates soon, but we are not afraid of that.’ The Eaton Vance Focused Value Opportunities Fund is up almost 1% so far in 2015, according to fund-tracker Morningstar. The fund, which Perkin described as contrarian, has outperformed 86% of its peers in Morningstar’s large cap value category. Perkin is extremely bullish on Equity Residential (EQR), which is up 9% year-to-date and yields 3.1%. He said Sam Zell’s apartment REIT has exposure to the markets with the best supply/demand outlook. The company recently divested non-core assets and will be paying a special dividend early next year.
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