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Is Matthews Asia Dividend Fund Investor (MAPIX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Equity Report fund category, a potential starting could be Matthews Asia Dividend Fund Investor (MAPIX - Free Report) . MAPIX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

Matthews Asia is responsible for MAPIX, and the company is based out of San Francisco, CA. Matthews Asia Dividend Fund Investor debuted in October of 2006. Since then, MAPIX has accumulated assets of about $1.59 billion, according to the most recently available information. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. MAPIX has a 5-year annualized total return of 2.98% and it sits in the bottom third among its category peers. But if you are looking for a shorter time frame, it is also worth looking at its 3-year annualized total return of 1.05%, 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, MAPIX's standard deviation comes in at 16.72%, compared to the category average of 16.47%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 14.83% compared to the category average of 14.72%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 0.67, the fund 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. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -5.6, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Expenses

As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, MAPIX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.02% compared to the category average of 1.29%. From a cost perspective, MAPIX is actually cheaper than its peers.

Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $2,500; each subsequent investment needs to be at least $100.

Bottom Line

Overall, Matthews Asia Dividend Fund Investor ( MAPIX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a somewhat average 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. For analysis of the rest of your portfolio, make sure to visit Zacks.com for our full suite of tools which will help you investigate all of your stocks and funds in one place.


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