Is Mairs & Power Balanced Fund (MAPOX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

MAPOX

There are plenty of choices in the Mutual Fund Equity Report category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that might be worth investigating is Mairs & Power Balanced Fund (MAPOX - Free Report) . MAPOX holds a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

MAPOX is a part of the Mairs & Power family of funds, a company based out of St. Paul, MN. Mairs & Power Balanced Fund made its debut in December of 1961, and since then, MAPOX has accumulated about $828.20 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund is currently managed by Kevin Earley who has been in charge of the fund since January of 2015.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. MAPOX has a 5-year annualized total return of 6.19% and is 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 5.45%, 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. Over the past three years, MAPOX's standard deviation comes in at 14.37%, compared to the category average of 14.17%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 12.52% compared to the category average of 12.35%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors should not forget about beta, an important way to measure a mutual fund's risk compared to the market as a whole. MAPOX has a 5-year beta of 0.66, which means it is likely to be less volatile than the market average. Another factor to consider is alpha, as it reflects a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark-in this case, the S&P 500. Over the past 5 years, the fund has a negative alpha of -1.6. This means 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, MAPOX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.69% compared to the category average of 0.86%. From a cost perspective, MAPOX is actually cheaper than its peers.

Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $2,500 and that each subsequent investment needs to be at $100.

Bottom Line

Overall, Mairs & Power Balanced Fund ( MAPOX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Mairs & Power Balanced Fund ( MAPOX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

For additional information on the Mutual Fund Equity Report 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 MAPOX 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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