If you have been looking for Large Cap Growth funds, it would not be wise to start your search with Artisan Global Opportunities Investor (ARTRX Quick QuoteARTRX - Free Report) . ARTRX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 5 (Strong Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

We classify ARTRX 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

ARTRX finds itself in the Artisan Funds family, based out of Boston, MA. The Artisan Global Opportunities Investor made its debut in September of 2008 and ARTRX has managed to accumulate roughly $1.18 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. A team of investment professionals is the fund's current manager.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. ARTRX has a 5-year annualized total return of 6.62% and it sits in the bottom 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 7.71%, 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. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 12.73% compared to the category average of 1.05%. 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.

Investors should not forget about beta, an important way to measure a mutual fund's risk compared to the market as a whole. ARTRX has a 5-year beta of 0.97, which means it is likely to be as volatile as 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. ARTRX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -1.3, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Expenses

For investors, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is key, since costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing. Competition is heating up in this space, and a lower cost product will likely outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, all things being equal. In terms of fees, ARTRX is a no load fund and it has an expense ratio of 1.15%.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $1,000, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

Bottom Line

With a 'strong sell' rank, Artisan Global Opportunities Investor is in the bottom 20% of all the mutual funds we cover. This means that our models suggest it is one of the worst options for investors in Large Cap Growth right now, though this could change if the performance of the fund and the Zacks Ranks of the equities in ARTRX turnaround in the next data release.

This could just be the start of your research on ARTRXin the Large Cap Growth category. Consider going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information about this fund, and all the others that we rank as well for additional information. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible.