Tweets and talk may have recently raged about trade wars and rising interest rates, but that pessimism didn’t hamper three of the second quarter’s better-performing mutual funds. They found winning investments with bets as varied as child care, pet health and banking.

The MFS Mid Cap Growth Fund aims to scoop up companies that can increase their earnings about 15 percent a year over the next three to five years or longer, said Eric B. Fischman, one of its two managers. “Earnings and cash flow drive stocks over the long term,” he said. “If you get the direction of those right, the stocks follow that.”

Mr. Fischman and his co-manager, Paul J. Gordon, sleuth widely to find growth stocks; they don’t just stuff their fund with tech names the way some growth managers do. Their largest holding is Bright Horizons Family Solutions, which operates more than 1,000 day care centers in the United States, Europe and India.

Mr. Fischman said Bright Horizons has a quality he and Mr. Gordon seek in their holdings: It can raise prices, no matter what’s happening with the economy. “Employers sign three- to five-year contracts with them, and you’re getting recurring revenue and a price increase every year,” he said. Bright Horizons is also known for delivering good-quality care, he said. “Reputation is very important here. You won’t just drop your kids anywhere.”