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Is TIAA-CREF Emerging Markets Equity Retirement (TEMSX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If investors are looking at the Mutual Fund Equity Report fund category, make sure to pass over TIAA-CREF Emerging Markets Equity Retirement (TEMSX - Free Report) . TEMSX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 5 (Strong Sell), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

TEMSX is a part of the TIAA-CREF family of funds, a company based out of Boston, MA. TIAA-CREF Emerging Markets Equity Retirement debuted in August of 2010. Since then, TEMSX has accumulated assets of about $62.44 million, according to the most recently available information. The fund's current manager, Barton Grenning, has been in charge of the fund since March of 2015.

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 -2.82%, and it sits in the bottom 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 5.78%, 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, TEMSX's standard deviation comes in at 21.22%, compared to the category average of 16.15%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 21.97% compared to the category average of 16.07%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 0.82, 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. Over the past 5 years, the fund has a negative alpha of -10.26. This means 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, TEMSX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.96% compared to the category average of 1.13%. So, TEMSX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $0, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

Bottom Line

Overall, TIAA-CREF Emerging Markets Equity Retirement ( TEMSX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, worse downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a somewhat weak 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. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible.


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