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Is Hartford Capital Appreciation A (ITHAX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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There are plenty of choices in the Large Cap Blend category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that you should consider investigating is Hartford Capital Appreciation A (ITHAX - Free Report) . ITHAX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

ITHAX is classified in the Large Cap Blend segment by Zacks, which is an area full of potential. Targeting companies with market caps of more than $10 billion, Large Cap Blend mutual funds offer a stable investment choice; these funds are perfect for investors with a " buy and hold " mindset. Since blended funds mix large, more established firms into their portfolios, investors are exposed to both value and growth opportunities.

History of Fund/Manager

ITHAX finds itself in the Hartford family, based out of Woodbury, MN. Since Hartford Capital Appreciation A made its debut in July of 1996, ITHAX has garnered more than $4.30 billion in assets. The fund's current manager, Gregg R. Thomas, has been in charge of the fund since March of 2013.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 5.5%, and it sits in the middle 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 6.31%, which places it in the bottom 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 9.37%, the standard deviation of ITHAX over the past three years is 11.99%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 12.05% compared to the category average of 9.3%. 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 ITHAX's case, the fund lost 56.22% in the most recent bear market and underperformed its peer group by 6.9%. This might suggest that the fund is a worse choice than its peers during a bear market.

Nevertheless, with a 5-year beta of 1.06, 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. ITHAX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -3.1, demonstrating 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, ITHAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.08% compared to the category average of 0.96%. From a cost perspective, ITHAX is actually more expensive than its peers.

While the minimum initial investment for the product is $2,000, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $50.

Bottom Line

Overall, Hartford Capital Appreciation A ( ITHAX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and higher fees, Hartford Capital Appreciation A ( ITHAX ) looks like a somewhat average choice for investors right now.

For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Large Cap Blend, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds 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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