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Is Baron Emerging Markets Retail (BEXFX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
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There are plenty of choices in the Mutual Fund Equity Report category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that may not be worth investigating is Baron Emerging Markets Retail (BEXFX - Free Report) . BEXFX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 5 (Strong Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
History of Fund/Manager
Baron is responsible for BEXFX, and the company is based out of New York, NY. The Baron Emerging Markets Retail made its debut in December of 2010 and BEXFX has managed to accumulate roughly $462.60 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. Michael Kass is the fund's current manager and has held that role since December of 2010.
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 1.83%, and is in the bottom third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 2.41%, which places it in the bottom 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 16.78%, the standard deviation of BEXFX over the past three years is 20.72%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 18.08% compared to the category average of 14.81%. This makes the fund more 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. 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. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -7.5, 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, BEXFX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.33% compared to the category average of 1.15%. From a cost perspective, BEXFX is actually more expensive than its peers.
This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $2,000, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.
Bottom Line
Overall, Baron Emerging Markets Retail ( BEXFX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, average downside risk, and higher fees, Baron Emerging Markets Retail ( BEXFX ) looks like a somewhat weak 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 BEXFX too 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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Is Baron Emerging Markets Retail (BEXFX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
There are plenty of choices in the Mutual Fund Equity Report category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that may not be worth investigating is Baron Emerging Markets Retail (BEXFX - Free Report) . BEXFX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 5 (Strong Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
History of Fund/Manager
Baron is responsible for BEXFX, and the company is based out of New York, NY. The Baron Emerging Markets Retail made its debut in December of 2010 and BEXFX has managed to accumulate roughly $462.60 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. Michael Kass is the fund's current manager and has held that role since December of 2010.
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 1.83%, and is in the bottom third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 2.41%, which places it in the bottom 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 16.78%, the standard deviation of BEXFX over the past three years is 20.72%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 18.08% compared to the category average of 14.81%. This makes the fund more 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. 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. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -7.5, 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, BEXFX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.33% compared to the category average of 1.15%. From a cost perspective, BEXFX is actually more expensive than its peers.
This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $2,000, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.
Bottom Line
Overall, Baron Emerging Markets Retail ( BEXFX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, average downside risk, and higher fees, Baron Emerging Markets Retail ( BEXFX ) looks like a somewhat weak 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 BEXFX too 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.