At the 2012 Morningstar Investment Conference, Bridget Hughes, associate director of fund analysis at Morningstar, moderated a panel of emerging-markets investors to shed light on the varied risk and rewards they encounter, as well as where today's opportunities lie. The panel included John Carlson, a senior portfolio manager for Fidelity Asset Management, David Nadel, a portfolio manager and director of international research for Royce & Associates, and Matthew Ryan, portfolio manager for MFS Investment management.

One of the Same
Each of the three managers invests in emerging markets via different strategies, but the trio were in agreement that the growth prospects of emerging-markets countries in conjunction with the relatively strong sovereign and corporate balance sheets have made investment opportunities in many emerging markets extremely attractive.

David Nadel, comanager of Royce Global Value RGVIX, finds emerging-markets equities quite inexpensive relative to U.S. equities. "Many of these businesses are nowhere near the peak of their earnings power," he noted, adding that the tremendous growth potential and current headline P/E ratios has made him bullish on the asset class.