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Is Glenmede Large Cap Core Portfolio (GTLOX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Having trouble finding a Large Cap Growth fund? Glenmede Large Cap Core Portfolio (GTLOX - Free Report) is a potential starting point. GTLOX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

We classify GTLOX in the Large Cap Growth category, an area rife with potential choices. Large Cap Growth funds invest in many large U.S. companies that are expected to grow much faster compared to other large-cap stocks. To be considered large-cap, companies must have a market cap over $10 billion.

History of Fund/Manager

GTLOX is a part of the Glenmede family of funds, a company based out of Philadelphia, PA. Since Glenmede Large Cap Core Portfolio made its debut in March of 2004, GTLOX has garnered more than $1.81 billion in assets. A team of investment professionals is the fund's current manager.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. GTLOX has a 5-year annualized total return of 8.36% and it sits in the middle 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 8.5%, 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 GTLOX over the past three years is 11.55% compared to the category average of 10.13%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 11.28% compared to the category average of 10.25%. 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. In GTLOX's case, the fund lost 49.15% in the most recent bear market and underperformed its peer group by 0.38%. This means that the fund could possibly be a worse choice than its peers during a down market environment.

Nevertheless, investors should also note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 1, which means it is hypothetically as volatile as 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. GTLOX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -0.09, demonstrating 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.

This fund is currently holding about 96.75% stock in stocks, and these companies have an average market capitalization of $92.72 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  1. Technology
  2. Finance
With turnover at about 54%, this fund makes more trades in a given year than the average of comparable funds.

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, GTLOX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.86% compared to the category average of 1.10%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, GTLOX is actually cheaper than its peers.

Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000 and that each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.

Bottom Line

Overall, Glenmede Large Cap Core Portfolio ( GTLOX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Glenmede Large Cap Core Portfolio ( GTLOX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

For additional information on the Large Cap Growth 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 GTLOX 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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