If investors are looking at the Mutual Fund Equity Report fund category, make sure to pass over Akre Focus Retail (AKREX Quick QuoteAKREX - Free Report) . AKREX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

Akre is based in Middleburg, VA, and is the manager of AKREX. The Akre Focus Retail made its debut in August of 2009 and AKREX has managed to accumulate roughly $12.8 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund's portfolio managers are John Neff and Chris Cerrone.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 13.11%, and is in the top third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 6.83%, 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. AKREX's standard deviation over the past three years is 19.93% compared to the category average of 17.8%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 17.32% compared to the category average of 15.86%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 0.89, the fund is likely to be less volatile than the market average. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. AKREX has generated a positive alpha over the past five years of 2.39, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

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, AKREX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.30% compared to the category average of 0.99%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, AKREX is actually more expensive than its peers.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $2,000, and each subsequent investment should be at least $250.

Bottom Line

Overall, Akre Focus Retail ( AKREX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and higher fees, this fund looks like a poor potential choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on AKREXin the Mutual Fund Equity Report category. Consider going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information about this fund, and all the others that we rank as well 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.