3 Top Small-Cap Growth Mutual Funds for Outstanding Returns

Small-cap growth funds are natural choices for investors with a high-risk appetite when capital appreciation over the long term takes precedence over dividend payouts. These funds focus on realizing an appreciable amount of capital growth by investing in stocks projected to rise in value over the long term.

Moreover, small-cap funds are good choices for investors seeking diversification across different sectors and companies. These generally invest in companies with a market cap lower than $2 billion. The companies, smaller in size, offer growth potential, and their market capitalization may increase subsequently. Also, due to their lower international exposure, small-cap funds provide higher protection than their large- and mid-cap counterparts against any global downturn.

Below, we share with you three top-ranked small-cap growth mutual funds, namely Emerald Growth HSPGX, T. Rowe Price Integrated US Small-Cap Growth Equity PRDSX and Northern Small Cap Core Fund NSGRX. Each has earned a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and is expected to outperform its peers in the future. Investors can click here to see the complete list of funds.

Emerald Growth primarily invests in U.S. and foreign equity securities, including common, preferred and convertible stocks, across industries and market caps, including small companies defined by the Russell 2000 Index.

Emerald Growth has a three-year annualized return of 23.6%. As of October 2025, HSPGX held 122 issues, with 5.7% of its assets invested in FM Emerald Life Science.

T. Rowe Price Integrated US Small-Cap Growth Equity primarily invests in common stocks of U.S. small-cap growth companies. The fund considers small-cap growth companies to be those whose market capitalization at the time of purchase lies within the range of firms included in the MSCI US Small Cap Growth Index.

T. Rowe Price Integrated US Small-Cap Growth Equity has three-year annualized returns of 14%. PRDSX has an expense ratio of 0.80%.

Northern Small Cap Core Fund invests primarily in equities of small-cap companies, typically within the range of the Russell 2000 Index. These firms often reinvest earnings for growth and usually pay little or no dividends.

Northern Small Cap Core Fund has a three-year annualized return of 12.3%. Jiemin Xu has been one of the fund managers of NSGRX since July 2025.

To view the Zacks Rank and the past performance of all small-cap growth mutual funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of small-cap growth mutual funds.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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