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Is Vanguard Global Capital Cycles Fund Investor (VGPMX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If investors are looking at the Sector - Precious Metal fund category, Vanguard Global Capital Cycles Fund Investor (VGPMX - Free Report) could be a potential option. VGPMX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

VGPMX is classified in the Sector - Precious Metal segment by Zacks, an area full of potential. Sector - Precious Metal mutual funds normally invest in stocks focused on the mining and production of precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. Often times, stocks here trade as leveraged bets of the underlying commodity, so they are tied to the prices of the metal, and can be quite volatile, too.

History of Fund/Manager

Vanguard Group is based in Malvern, PA, and is the manager of VGPMX. Vanguard Global Capital Cycles Fund Investor made its debut in May of 1984, and since then, VGPMX has accumulated about $1.33 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. Keith White is the fund's current manager and has held that role since July of 2018.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. VGPMX has a 5-year annualized total return of 12.18% and it sits 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 10.54%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame.

It is important to note that the product's returns may not reflect all its expenses. Any fees not reflected would lower the returns. Total returns do not reflect the fund's [%] sale charge. If sales charges were included, total returns would have been lower.

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 17.67%, the standard deviation of VGPMX over the past three years is 17.28%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 19.29% compared to the category average of 18.8%. 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 0.86, which means it is hypothetically less volatile than the market at large. 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 positive alpha over the past 5 years of 0.19, which shows 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, VGPMX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.43% compared to the category average of 0.97%. So, VGPMX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $3,000, and each subsequent investment should be at least $1.

Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into considiration. Returns would be less if those were included.

Bottom Line

Overall, Vanguard Global Capital Cycles Fund Investor ( VGPMX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Vanguard Global Capital Cycles Fund Investor ( VGPMX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

Your research on the Sector - Precious Metal 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 are more of a stock investor, make sure to also check out our Zacks Rank, and our full suite of tools we have available for novice and professional investors alike.


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