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Is Semper MBS Total Return Investor (SEMPX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If you've been stuck searching for Index funds, consider Semper MBS Total Return Investor (SEMPX - Free Report) as a possibility. 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

Semper is based in New York, NY, and is the manager of SEMPX. The Semper MBS Total Return Investor made its debut in July of 2013 and SEMPX has managed to accumulate roughly $219.96 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by Thomas Mandel who has been in charge of the fund since January of 2015.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 5.98%, If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3-year annualized total return of 4.12%, 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 SEMPX over the past three years is 2.05% compared to the category average of 8.93%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 2.36% compared to the category average of 8.95%. This makes the fund less 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.

Even still, the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.02, so investors should note that 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. Over the past 5 years, the fund has a positive alpha of 5.41. This means that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking 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, SEMPX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.97% compared to the category average of 0.85%. So, SEMPX is actually more expensive than its peers from a cost perspective.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $2,500, and each subsequent investment should be at least $1,000.

Bottom Line

Want even more information about SEMPX? 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. For analysis of the rest of your portfolio, make sure to visit Zacks.com for our full suite of tools which will help you investigate all of your stocks and funds in one place.


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