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Is Dreyfus Small Cap Stock Index Investor (DISSX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Having trouble finding an Index fund? Dreyfus Small Cap Stock Index Investor (DISSX - Free Report) is a potential starting point. DISSX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

BNY Mellon is responsible for DISSX, and the company is based out of New York, NY. Since Dreyfus Small Cap Stock Index Investor made its debut in June of 1997, DISSX has garnered more than $1.34 billion in assets. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 8.97%, and is in the middle third among its category peers. If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3-year annualized total return of 4.3%, which places it in the bottom third during this time-frame.

When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. Over the past three years, DISSX's standard deviation comes in at 25.57%, compared to the category average of 15.84%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 21.7% compared to the category average of 13.51%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 1.27, which means it is hypothetically more volatile than the market at large. Because alpha represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which is the S&P 500 in this case, one should pay attention to this metric as well. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -6.7, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Holdings

Investigating the equity holdings of a mutual fund is also a valuable exercise. This can show us how the manager is applying their stated methodology, as well as if there are any inherent biases in their approach. For this particular fund, the focus is primarily on equities that are traded in the United States.

Right now, 98.14% of this mutual fund's holdings are stocks, which have an average market capitalization of $2.27 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  1. Finance
  2. Industrial Cyclical
  3. Technology
With turnover at about 40.74%, this fund is making fewer trades than the average comparable fund.

Expenses

Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, DISSX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.51% compared to the category average of 0.81%. DISSX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $2,500, and each subsequent investment should be at least $100.

Bottom Line

Overall, Dreyfus Small Cap Stock Index Investor ( DISSX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, worse downside risk, and lower fees, Dreyfus Small Cap Stock Index Investor ( DISSX ) looks like a great potential choice for investors right now.

Want even more information about DISSX? Then go over to Zacks.com and check out our mutual fund comparison tool, and all of the other great features that we have to help you with your mutual fund analysis for additional information. If you want to check out our stock reports as well, make sure to go to Zacks.com to see all of the great tools we have to offer, including our time-tested Zacks Rank.


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