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Is Janus Henderson Global Life Science T (JAGLX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Have you been searching for a Sector - Health fund? You might want to begin with Janus Henderson Global Life Science T (JAGLX - Free Report) . JAGLX holds a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

We note that JAGLX is a Sector - Health fund, and this area is also loaded with various options. Sector - Health mutual funds give investors an opportunity to focus on one of the largest sectors of the American economy, healthcare. Funds in this category can include everything from for-profit hospitals to pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers.

History of Fund/Manager

Janus Fund is based in Boston, MA, and is the manager of JAGLX. Since Janus Henderson Global Life Science T made its debut in December of 1998, JAGLX has garnered more than $1.18 billion in assets. The fund's current manager, Andrew Acker, has been in charge of the fund since May of 2007.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. JAGLX has a 5-year annualized total return of 10.68% and it sits in the top 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 12.07%, 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. Compared to the category average of 10.63%, the standard deviation of JAGLX over the past three years is 14.91%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 16.63% compared to the category average of 10.46%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

One cannot ignore the volatility of this segment, however, as it is always important for investors to remember the downside to any potential investment. In JAGLX's case, the fund lost 35.92% in the most recent bear market and underperformed its peer group by 2.68%. This makes the fund a possibly worse choice than its peers during a sliding market environment.

Investors should not forget about beta, an important way to measure a mutual fund's risk compared to the market as a whole. JAGLX has a 5-year beta of 1.1, which means it 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. JAGLX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -0.51, 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, JAGLX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.91% compared to the category average of 1.29%. JAGLX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $2,500; each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.

Bottom Line

Overall, Janus Henderson Global Life Science T ( JAGLX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, strong performance, worse downside risk, and lower fees compared to its peers.

This could just be the start of your research on JAGLXin the Sector - Health 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. If you are more of a stock investor, make sure to also check out our Zacks Rank, and our full suite of tools we have available for novice and professional investors alike.


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