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Is T. Rowe Price Personal Strategy Growth (TRSGX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If investors are looking at the Mutual Fund Equity Report fund category, T. Rowe Price Personal Strategy Growth (TRSGX - Free Report) could be a potential option. TRSGX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

T. Rowe Price is based in Baltimore, MD, and is the manager of TRSGX. T. Rowe Price Personal Strategy Growth debuted in July of 1994. Since then, TRSGX has accumulated assets of about $2.53 billion, according to the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by Charles Shriver who has been in charge of the fund since May of 2011.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 7.85%, 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 8.81%, 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. Compared to the category average of 15.3%, the standard deviation of TRSGX over the past three years is 15.13%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 13.39% compared to the category average of 13.41%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 0.79, the fund 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. TRSGX's 5-year performance has produced a negative alpha of -2.7, which means 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, TRSGX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.61% compared to the category average of 0.78%. TRSGX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $2,500, and each subsequent investment should be at least $100.

Bottom Line

Overall, T. Rowe Price Personal Strategy Growth ( TRSGX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

Your research on the Mutual Fund Equity Report segment doesn't have to stop here. You can check out all the great mutual fund tools we have to offer by going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds to see the additional features we offer as well 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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