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Is Thrivent Aggressive Allocation S (TAAIX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Having trouble finding an Allocation Balanced fund? Thrivent Aggressive Allocation S (TAAIX - Free Report) is a potential starting point. TAAIX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

TAAIX is one of many Zacks' Allocation Balanced mutual funds to pick from. Allocation Balanced funds seek to invest in a balance of asset types, like stocks, bonds, and cash, though including precious metals or commodities is not unusual; these funds are mostly categorized by their respective asset allocation. Investors utilize Allocation Balanced funds as a way to get a good start with diversified mutual funds, as well as for core holdings in a portfolio of funds.

History of Fund/Manager

Thrivent is based in Appleton, WI, and is the manager of TAAIX. The Thrivent Aggressive Allocation S made its debut in June of 2005 and TAAIX has managed to accumulate roughly $299.80 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 7.07%, and it sits in the top 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 9.36%, 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. TAAIX's standard deviation over the past three years is 9.4% compared to the category average of 7.56%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 9.81% compared to the category average of 7.77%. 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, TAAIX lost 49.34% and underperformed its peer group by 13.1%. This might suggest that the fund is a worse choice than its peers during a bear market.

Nevertheless, with a 5-year beta of 0.93, the fund is likely to be less 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. Over the past 5 years, the fund has a negative alpha of -2.94. This means that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

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, TAAIX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.66% compared to the category average of 0.90%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, TAAIX is actually cheaper than its peers.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $2,000, and each subsequent investment should be at least $50.

Bottom Line

Overall, Thrivent Aggressive Allocation S ( TAAIX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

For additional information on the Allocation Balanced 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 TAAIX too for additional information. Want to learn even more? We have a full suite of tools on stocks that you can use to find the best choices for your portfolio too, no matter what kind of investor you are.


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