Rob Roquitte, whose Harris Insight Small Cap Value Fund rose almost twice as much as competing mutual funds during the past year, is buying technology and health-care stocks after cutting his holdings of energy shares.

Mr. Roquitte purchased shares of Ventiv Health Incorporated, a provider of marketing services to pharmaceutical companies, and Agilysys Incorporated, a distributor of software. He sold Frontline Limited, the world’s biggest oil-tanker company, and San Juan Basin Royalty Trust, an owner of oil and gas properties, on concern that oil prices may be peaking.

“Energy is less attractive to us today than it was a year ago,” said Mr. Roquitte, 39, who manages the $426 million fund with Paul Kleinaitis in Chicago at Harris Investment Management Incorporated.

“There is still upside potential, but more downside risk.”

The Harris Insight fund climbed 27% in the past 12 months, outpacing the average 14% gain of 149 similar funds tracked by Bloomberg. The funds invest in companies with market values of less than $1.8 billion whose shares are considered inexpensive relative to earnings and other financial yardsticks. The top performer in the group was the Oakmark International Small Cap Fund, managed by David Herro and Chad Clark, which rose 31%.

Messrs. Roquitte and Kleinaitis have about 120 stocks in their fund. The managers focus on companies that are reporting revenue growth and stable earnings relative to analysts’ estimates.

The fund’s largest holdings range from United Defense Industries Incorporated, the maker of Bradley Fighting Vehicles, to mental-health services provider Psychiatric Solutions Incorporated, to Chiquita Brands International, the world’s largest banana producer. Mr. Roquitte started managing the fund a year ago, joining 46-year-old Mr. Kleinaitis. The fund’s energy position was about 14% of the portfolio at the time, almost three times the average for the Russell 2000 Index.

“We thought that was a good place to be, but we certainly didn’t foresee oil prices hitting the mid-$50s,” said Mr. Roquitte, who has degrees from the University of Denver in Colorado and the University of Chicago. The fund has since trimmed its energy stake to 10%, selling Bermuda-based Frontline and San Juan Basin of Fort Worth, Texas, during the third quarter.

Shares of Frontline more than doubled in the past year, while San Juan Basin’s stock rose 36%.

“We’re never perfect at predicting the top of these stocks,” Mr. Roquitte said. “We took the opportunity to take some profits and re-deploy it.”

New York crude prices climbed 54% in the past year amid supply concerns and increased demand from China.

Mr. Roquitte started selling energy shares in the second quarter. Last week, crude oil reached a record $57.60 a barrel. “I believe we’re getting close to the end of the energy bull market,” said the chief investment officer of Riley Asset Management in Boston, Ned Riley. Mr. Riley started the company a month ago after leaving State Street Global Advisors.

Technology and health-care holdings accounted for about 24% of Harris Insight fund’s assets at the end of February. Shares of Somerset, N.J.-based Ventiv Health surged 85% in the past year. The company has raised its 2005 earnings forecast by 5% to $1.03 to $1.09 a share, after profit rose more than fivefold last year.

Shares of Agilysys soared 70% in the past year. The Mayfield Heights, Ohio based company, which sells software developed by International Business Machines and Hewlett-Packard, said earnings in the three months ended December 31 gained 63% to $14.2 million as sales climbed 12%.

“They’ve increased their sales significantly despite the relatively weak technology-spending environment,” Mr. Roquitte said.

Mr. Roquitte in December added San Diego-based Websense Incorporated, a company that makes software to monitor Internet use. Its shares more than doubled in the past year, and sales surged more than tenfold since the company was founded in 1999. “More companies are keeping an eye on productivity, and this is one way they can do that,” Mr. Roquitte said.

Mr. Roquitte scaled back his stakes in shares of financial-services companies. They still represent the largest portion of his fund’s assets, at 25%. Last month, he sold shares of Glacier Bancorp of Kalispell, Mont., on concern about rising interest rates.

The Federal Reserve raised the benchmark overnight lending rate on March 22 by a quarter-point to 2.75%, the seventh increase since June. Fed policy-makers said pricing pressures have increased and indicated they will keep raising interest rates to prevent faster inflation.

The Harris Insight fund’s largest holding is United Defense Industries, whose shares more than doubled in the past year. BAE Systems Plc, Europe’s largest defense contractor, agreed on March 7 to buy Arlington, Va.-based United Defense for almost $4 billion.

Mr. Roquitte, who joined Harris in 1999, also works with Mr. Kleinaitis on the firm’s Small Cap Opportunity and Small Cap Aggressive Growth funds. The funds returned more than 20% last year, outperforming the Russell 2000 Index’s 17% advance.

Mr. Roquitte expects gains in smallcap stocks to continue to outpace largecap stocks. The median 2005 earnings growth estimate of companies in the Russell 2000, a measure of small companies, is 18%, compared with 12% for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, according to Leuthold Group, a stock research firm in Minneapolis.