Seven top-rated, yet relatively unsung, PMs stepped into the limelight this morning in New York City.

Niche fundster marketing shop SunStar Strategic gathered PMs to speak to the financial press at the "2013 Media Briefing for Undiscovered Funds," at the Hilton in midtown Manhattan. Nigh 50 reporters showed up for the PMs' market outlooks and stock picks, for the networking, and for pastries and fruit.

The briefing featured seven PMs as speakers, from seven different mutual fund shops and each touting a four- or five-star mutual fund. The featured PMs were:

• Craig Hodges, CEO and chief investment officer of Hodges Capital Management [profile] and PM of the Hodges Small Cap Fund;
  
  
• Erich Patten, chief investment officer at Cutler Investment Counsel [profile] and co-PM of the Cutler Equity Fund;
  
  
• George Young, partner at Villere & Co [profile] and PM of the Villere Balanced Fund;
  
  
• Brian Lazorishak, senior vice president at Chase Investment Counsel [profile] and senior PM of the Chase Mid-Cap Growth Fund;
  
  
• Duane McAllister, co-PM of BMO Global Asset Management's [profile] BMO Intermediate Tax Free Fund;
  
  
• Randy Bateman, PM of Huntington Funds' [profile] Huntington Situs Fund; and
  
  
• David Ellison, PM of Hennessy's [profile] Large Cap Financial Fund and its Small Cap Financial Fund.

SunStar partner Livestudio HD videotaped the event. SunStar offered attending reporters the chance to have Livestudio record one-on-one interviews at the event and then give the reporters their recordings to take back. SunStar's Dan Sondhelm, moderator for the panel, even encouraged the reporters to post about the event on Twitter, using #SunStarMB2013.

The PMs offered various tidbits of wisdom. Patten of Cutler, talking about dividend investing and yield-chasing, warned that "it's tough to catch a wave in a crowd."

Hodges, who quipped that the six-minute time limit on his remarks would transform him into "the fastest-talking Texan that there is," argued that "the meteoric rise of the ETF business creates great opportunities for stock pickers" thanks to stocks correlating with their indexes.

Villere's Young, whose shop is a fourth-generation family-run business in New Orleans, offered two nuggets from his great-grandfather; "Stocks are seldom cheap and popular at the same time," and "Don't fall in love with a stock because it won't love you back."

BMO's McAllister, the sole fixed income PM on the panel, pondered the end of the bull market in bonds.

"The bull market ended last year. Rates can only go so low," McAllister said. "But, the bear market hasn't started yet. The bear is awakening a bit but he's still in the cage."

Hennessy's Ellison, who joined thanks to Hennessy's acquisition of FBR's mutual fund business, described the financial sector as "really sort of a group hug industry," in contrast to sectors that are more divided between winners and losers. 

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