Davis Opportunity In For Long Haul; Sees Strong Consumer; Fund seeks solid firms that trade at a fraction of their actual worth.(MUTUAL FUNDS)(MUTUAL FUND PROFILE)

Byline: J. ROBINSON PURDY

A big question mark for investors this year is if consumer spending can hold up in the face of higher energy prices and rising interest rates.

The managers of $608 million Davis Opportunity Fund, which has had a big chunk of assets in consumer-related stocks, remain upbeat. "We still have a strong outlook for consumer spending," said Chip Tucker, 36, one of the fund's eight New York-based managers.

Going into Monday, the fund was up 6.25% for the year. Its mid-cap blend peers tracked by Morningstar were up 6.49% on average. The S&P 500 was up 2.76%.

For the past three years, the fund returned an average annual 20.3% vs. 18.64% for its peers and 13.13% for the S&P 500.

The managers measure the fund's sector weightings against those of the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Index, but they tend to deviate from this index in accordance with their own analysis. In the first quarter, an average of 28.7% of fund assets were in consumer-discretionary stocks vs. 13.7% for the index.

Tucker, the fund's retail- and consumer-sector analyst, worked for more than 10 years in the retail area before joining the Davis team three years ago.