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

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Large Cap Growth fund seekers should consider taking a look at 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.

Objective

TRLGX is classified in the Large Cap Growth segment by Zacks, an area full of possibilities. Companies are usually considered to be large-cap if their stock market valuation is more than $10 billion. Large Cap Growth mutual funds invest in many large U.S. firms that are projected to grow at a faster rate than their large-cap peers.

History of Fund/Manager

TRLGX is a part of the T. Rowe Price family of funds, a company based out of Baltimore, MD. T. Rowe Price Institutional Large Cap Growth debuted in October of 2001. Since then, TRLGX has accumulated assets of about $18.33 billion, according to the most recently available information. Taymour R. Tamaddon is the fund's current manager and has held that role since January of 2017.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 19.41%, and is 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 20.85%, which places it in the top 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 11.88%, the standard deviation of TRLGX over the past three years is 12.63%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 12.37% compared to the category average of 11.33%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors cannot discount the risks to this segment though, as it is always important to remember the downside for any potential investment. In the most recent bear market, TRLGX lost 48.81% and underperformed comparable funds by 0.16%. This might suggest that the fund is a worse choice than its peers during a bear market.

Nevertheless, with a 5-year beta of 1.09, the fund is likely to be more volatile than the market average. 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 3.45, which shows that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Holdings

Exploring 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.

Right now, 89.27% of this mutual fund's holdings are stocks, which have an average market capitalization of $297.76 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  1. Technology
  2. Finance
Turnover is 32.8%, which means this fund makes fewer trades than the average comparable fund.

Expenses

Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, TRLGX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.56% compared to the category average of 1.10%. So, TRLGX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

While the minimum initial investment for the product is $1 million, investors should also note that 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 strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, T. Rowe Price Institutional Large Cap Growth ( TRLGX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

Want even more information about TRLGX? 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. 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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