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Is Vanguard Institutional Target Retirement 2020 (VITWX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Are you on the hunt for a Mutual Fund Equity Report fund? You should think about starting with Vanguard Institutional Target Retirement 2020 . The fund does not have a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, though we have been able to explore other metrics like performance, volatility, and cost.

History of Fund/Manager

VITWX finds itself in the Vanguard Group family, based out of Malvern, PA. Vanguard Institutional Target Retirement 2020 made its debut in June of 2015, and since then, VITWX has accumulated about $32.13 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund is currently managed by William Coleman who has been in charge of the fund since June of 2015.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 9.32%, 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 12.62%, 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 9.04%, the standard deviation of VITWX over the past three years is 9.04%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 7.93% compared to the category average of 7.86%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 0.49, the fund is likely to be less volatile than the market average. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -0.3, which shows 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, VITWX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.09% compared to the category average of 0.49%. VITWX 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 $5 million; each subsequent investment needs to be at least $1.

Bottom Line

For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Mutual Fund Equity Report, 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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