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Is Cohen & Steers Realty Shares (CSRSX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If you've been stuck searching for Mutual Fund Equity Report funds, consider Cohen & Steers Realty Shares (CSRSX - Free Report) as a possibility. CSRSX holds 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

CSRSX finds itself in the Cohen & Steers family, based out of New York, NY. Since Cohen & Steers Realty Shares made its debut in July of 1991, CSRSX has garnered more than $6.54 billion in assets. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 12.48%, and it sits in the top 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 15.93%, which places it in the top 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. CSRSX's standard deviation over the past three years is 18.34% compared to the category average of 16.87%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 15.51% compared to the category average of 14.23%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors should not forget about beta, an important way to measure a mutual fund's risk compared to the market as a whole. CSRSX has a 5-year beta of 0.77, which means it is likely to be less volatile than the market average. 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. CSRSX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -0.81, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

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, CSRSX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.88% compared to the category average of 1.22%. So, CSRSX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $10,000, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

Bottom Line

Overall, Cohen & Steers Realty Shares ( CSRSX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Cohen & Steers Realty Shares ( CSRSX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Mutual Fund Equity Report, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information. Want to learn even more? We have a full suite of tools on stocks that you can use to find the best choices for your portfolio too, no matter what kind of investor you are.


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