Washington Mutual Investors Fund, AWSHX, Refuses to Buy Certain Stocks. That’s the Point

AWSHX bars tobacco, alcohol, and gambling companies from its portfolio yet delivered a 17% one-year return and 239% gain over ten years.

KO and JPM exemplify qualifying holdings, with Coca-Cola's quarterly dividend tripling since 1999 and JPMorgan trading near 15 times earnings.

At 0.55% annually, AWSHX costs roughly 10 times more than an S&P 500 index fund, a gap that compounds meaningfully over decades.

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Most mutual funds will buy anything their strategy can justify. Washington Mutual Investors Fund ( NASDAQ:AWSHX ) will not. The fund operates under a set of eligibility rules that flatly disqualify certain companies from the portfolio, regardless of price, momentum, or story. That constraint is the entire point of the product.

Run by Capital Group as part of the American Funds family, AWSHX is a large-cap value fund built for investors who want blue-chip income without the parts of the market they find objectionable. The prospectus dated June 30, 2026 lists a net expense ratio of 0.55%, meaning $55 a year on a $10,000 balance. That is not cheap next to an S&P 500 index fund, but it is well below the typical actively managed equity fund.

The fund's defining feature is its screening framework. Historically rooted in District of Columbia court-approved "prudent man" standards, the rules bar the fund from owning companies that derive meaningful revenue from categories such as tobacco, alcohol, and gambling. The screens also lean the portfolio toward companies with long records of paying dividends and investment-grade balance sheets. Morningstar has described the fund as prioritizing investment-grade firms, which is consistent with the way the eligibility rules push managers toward established, cash-generative businesses.

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