Are growth funds poised to outperform value?

Morningstar shows that growth funds look a lot more like value funds than they did in March 2000.

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Is it time for value to hand the baton to growth? The contrarian in us wants to say yes. Morningstar's large-cap growth category has lagged every domestic diversified stock fund group more often than not during the past six years. Based on performance and the idea that value won't trample on growth indefinitely, it seems reasonable to conclude that large-cap growth funds are ripe for their turn at the head of the pack.

Hold on, though, while we examine a few crucial facts. Large-cap growth funds may indeed be due for a comeback, but as a group they are not screaming buys, according to underlying fundamentals. In fact, large-cap growth funds don't look drastically different from large-cap value funds in some regards.