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Is Thrivent Aggressive Allocation S (TAAIX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If investors are looking at the Mutual Fund Equity Report fund category, Thrivent Aggressive Allocation S (TAAIX - Free Report) could be a potential option. TAAIX holds 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

Thrivent is based in Appleton, WI, and is the manager of TAAIX. Thrivent Aggressive Allocation S debuted in June of 2005. Since then, TAAIX has accumulated assets of about $887.90 million, according to the most recently available information. A team of investment professionals is the fund's current manager.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. TAAIX has a 5-year annualized total return of 9.4% and is in the top third among its category peers. If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3-year annualized total return of 11.5%, 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. Over the past three years, TAAIX's standard deviation comes in at 17.47%, compared to the category average of 16.53%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 15.63% compared to the category average of 14.73%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 0.93, 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. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -2.76, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Holdings

Investigating the equity holdings of a mutual fund is also a valuable exercise. This can show us how the manager is applying their stated methodology, as well as if there are any inherent biases in their approach. For this particular fund, the focus is primarily on equities that are traded in the United States.

Right now, 84.62% of this mutual fund's holdings are stocks, which have an average market capitalization of $142.61 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  1. Finance
  2. Other
With turnover at about 50%, this fund is making fewer trades than comparable funds.

Expenses

As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, TAAIX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.74% compared to the category average of 0.86%. From a cost perspective, TAAIX is actually cheaper than its peers.

Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $2,000; each subsequent investment needs to be at least $50.

Bottom Line

Overall, Thrivent Aggressive Allocation S ( TAAIX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Thrivent Aggressive Allocation S ( TAAIX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on TAAIXin 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. If you are more of a stock investor, make sure to also check out our Zacks Rank, and our full suite of tools we have available for novice and professional investors alike.


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