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Is Vanguard Target Retirement 2035 Fund (VTTHX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If you've been stuck searching for Mutual Fund Equity Report funds, consider Vanguard Target Retirement 2035 Fund (VTTHX - Free Report) as a possibility. While this fund is not tracked by the Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, we were able to examine other factors like performance, volatility, and cost.

History of Fund/Manager

Vanguard Group is based in Malvern, PA, and is the manager of VTTHX. The Vanguard Target Retirement 2035 Fund made its debut in October of 2003 and VTTHX has managed to accumulate roughly $79.35 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund's current manager, William Coleman, has been in charge of the fund since February of 2013.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. VTTHX has a 5-year annualized total return of 7.77% and it sits in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 7.29%, which places it in the middle 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 VTTHX over the past three years is 14.04% compared to the category average of 14.33%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 12.28% compared to the category average of 12.51%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.73, so it is likely going to be less 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. VTTHX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -2.34, 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, VTTHX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.14% compared to the category average of 0.48%. VTTHX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000 and that each subsequent investment needs to be at $1.

Bottom Line

This could just be the start of your research on VTTHXin the Mutual Fund Equity Report 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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