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Is T. Rowe Price Institutional Large Cap Growth (TRLGX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Equity Report funds, a place to start could be T. Rowe Price Institutional Large Cap Growth (TRLGX - Free Report) . TRLGX bears 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

T. Rowe Price is responsible for TRLGX, and the company is based out of Baltimore, MD. T. Rowe Price Institutional Large Cap Growth made its debut in October of 2001, and since then, TRLGX has accumulated about $15.35 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. Taymour Tamaddon is the fund's current manager and has held that role since January of 2017.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 12.24%, and is in the middle 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 10.26%, which places it in the middle 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. Compared to the category average of 18.88%, the standard deviation of TRLGX over the past three years is 22.51%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 19.99% compared to the category average of 16.85%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 1.06, the fund is likely to be more volatile than the market average. Another factor to consider is alpha, as it reflects a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark-in this case, the S&P 500. Over the past 5 years, the fund has a positive alpha of 0.05. This means that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking 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 mostly on equities that are traded in the United States.

As of the last filing date, the mutual fund has 98.64% of its assets in stocks, which have an average market capitalization of $524.76 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  1. Technology
  2. Retail Trade
Turnover is 18.8%, which means, on average, the fund makes fewer trades than comparable funds.

Expenses

For investors, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is key, since costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing. Competition is heating up in this space, and a lower cost product will likely outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, all things being equal. In terms of fees, TRLGX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.55% compared to the category average of 0.99%. From a cost perspective, TRLGX is actually cheaper than its peers.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $500,000, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

Bottom Line

Overall, T. Rowe Price Institutional Large Cap Growth ( TRLGX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

Your research on the Mutual Fund Equity Report segment doesn't have to stop here. You can check out all the great mutual fund tools we have to offer by going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds to see the additional features we offer as well 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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