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Is John Hancock2 Capital Appreciation 1 (JICPX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If you have been looking for Large Cap Growth fund category, a potential starting could be John Hancock2 Capital Appreciation 1 (JICPX - Free Report) . JICPX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

JICPX is classified in the Large Cap Growth segment by Zacks, an area full of possibilities. Companies are usually considered to be large-cap if their stock market valuation is more than $10 billion. Large Cap Growth mutual funds invest in many large U.S. firms that are projected to grow at a faster rate than their large-cap peers.

History of Fund/Manager

John Hancock is responsible for JICPX, and the company is based out of Boston, MA. Since John Hancock2 Capital Appreciation 1 made its debut in October of 2005, JICPX has garnered more than $574.58 million in assets. A team of investment professionals is the fund's current manager.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 13.67%, and is in the top third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 20.56%, 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. The standard deviation of JICPX over the past three years is 15.1% compared to the category average of 11.77%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 14.86% compared to the category average of 11.57%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors should always remember the downsides to a potential investment, and this segment carries some risks one should be aware of. In JICPX's case, the fund lost 44.31% in the most recent bear market and outperformed its peer group by 5%. This might suggest that the fund is a better choice than its peers during a bear market.

Even still, the fund has a 5-year beta of 1.13, so investors should note that it is hypothetically more volatile than 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. With a positive alpha of 1.55, managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Holdings

Exploring 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 mostly on equities that are traded in the United States.

This fund is currently holding about 91.73% stock in stocks, which have an average market capitalization of $287.65 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  1. Technology
  2. Retail Trade
Turnover is 50%, which means this fund makes fewer trades than the average comparable fund.

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, JICPX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.79% compared to the category average of 1.08%. From a cost perspective, JICPX is actually cheaper than its peers.

Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $0 and that each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.

Bottom Line

Overall, John Hancock2 Capital Appreciation 1 ( JICPX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, John Hancock2 Capital Appreciation 1 ( JICPX ) looks like a somewhat average choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on JICPXin 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.


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