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Is Vanguard Mid-Cap Growth Index Admiral (VMGMX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Have you been searching for an Index fund? You might want to begin with Vanguard Mid-Cap Growth Index Admiral (VMGMX - 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

VMGMX is a part of the Vanguard Group family of funds, a company based out of Malvern, PA. Since Vanguard Mid-Cap Growth Index Admiral made its debut in September of 2011, VMGMX has garnered more than $6.03 billion in assets. Donald M. Butler is the fund's current manager and has held that role since February of 2013.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 9.38%, and is 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 9.59%, 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. VMGMX's standard deviation over the past three years is 11.66% compared to the category average of 8%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 11.65% compared to the category average of 8.66%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

It's always important to be aware of the downsides to any future investment, so one should not discount the risks that come with this segment.

Even still, the fund has a 5-year beta of 1.06, so investors should note that it is hypothetically more volatile than the market at large. 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. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -2.04, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Holdings

Investigating 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 largely on equities that are traded in the United States.

Currently, this mutual fund is holding 78.29% stock in stocks, which have an average market capitalization of $17.48 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  1. Technology
  2. Finance
  3. Services
Turnover is about 54%, so those in charge of the fund make fewer trades than the average comparable fund.

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, VMGMX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.07% compared to the category average of 0.74%. VMGMX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

While the minimum initial investment for the product is $3,000, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $1.

Bottom Line

For additional information on the Index area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into VMGMX too 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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