"The degree in disparity matches and even exceeds the disparity of the previous five years (before 2000)," he says. "Both experiences entice people into behavior that will cost them money in the long term."

Has growth slumped to the point where there's too much of a bargain in the sector for the market to resist? Growth fund managers, particularly those who have weathered the past five years with respectable performance, argue that that point has either been reached or is on the horizon.

Others say it would at least be prudent to be prepared for such a turnaround. Lincoln Anderson, chief investment officer and chief economist at LPL Financial Services, recently recommended its advisors overweight on growth relative to value.

"It's more from a risk perspective than a return perspective," Anderson says. "We're just concerned that if there is some sort of a breakdown or a problem that arises, the potential for it to hit value greater than growth is certainly there."

Anderson sees a reason to believe a recovery for growth investing is near: a promising outlook on the economy. Capital spending in the technology sector is among the trends supporting a rebound by growth. Anderson notes that capital expenditures on information processing-computer equipment and software-is up 16% from a year ago. Broad-based equipment investment was up 18% in the fourth quarter, he adds.

Added to that is what he considers a fairly low industrial capacity utilization rate and a healthy balance between prices and labor costs.

"It's telling me that we are still embarked on an increasingly broad-based expansion and I don't see anything to slow it down," he says.   

Sophisticated investors are positioning themselves for a reversal of fortune. Bob Turner, chief investment officer of Turner Funds, reports that his firm's assets rose about 50% from $10 billion to $15 billion in 2004, with most of it coming from advisors and institutional investors.

Turner has maintained his style discipline, resisting the temptation to dip into value stocks to juice their performance, unlike some of his peers.  "The move back to growth will be gradual. Three-year cycles have become five-year cycles," he says.

When growth stocks do start to move again, Turner expects the gains to be far more modest than those in the 1990s. "There's no reason why Oracle can't go from $13 a share to $18 or why Microsoft can't go from $26 a share to $33 or $34," he says.
Other growth fund managers are also confident that better days lie ahead. Alex Motola, portfolio manager of the Thornburg Core Growth Fund, says fundamentals point to a healthy run for growth-all that's missing, he says, is investor enthusiasm.