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Is Vanguard Target Retirement 2025 Fund (VTTVX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Have you been searching for a Mutual Fund Equity Report fund? You might want to begin with Vanguard Target Retirement 2025 Fund (VTTVX - Free Report) . While this fund is not tracked by the Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, we were able to examine other factors like performance, volatility, and cost.

History of Fund/Manager

VTTVX finds itself in the Vanguard Group family, based out of Malvern, PA. Since Vanguard Target Retirement 2025 Fund made its debut in October of 2003, VTTVX has garnered more than $75.12 billion in assets. The fund is currently managed by William Coleman who has been in charge of the fund since February of 2013.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 3.15%, and it sits in the top 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 1.4%, 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. The standard deviation of VTTVX over the past three years is 12.86% compared to the category average of 12.52%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 11.22% compared to the category average of 10.85%. 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 0.6, so it is likely going to be less volatile than the market at large. 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. With a negative alpha of -2.99, 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, VTTVX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.11% compared to the category average of 0.48%. So, VTTVX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $1,000, and each subsequent investment should be at least $1.

Bottom Line

Want even more information about VTTVX? 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. And don't forget, Zacks has all of your needs covered on the equity side too! Make sure to check out Zacks.com for more information on our screening capabilities, Rank, and all our articles as well.


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