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Is Azzad Ethical Mid Cap Fund (ADJEX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Equity Report fund category, a potential starting could be Azzad Ethical Mid Cap Fund (ADJEX - Free Report) . ADJEX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

ADJEX finds itself in the Azzad family, based out of Falls Church, VA. Azzad Ethical Mid Cap Fund debuted in December of 2000. Since then, ADJEX has accumulated assets of about $107.17 million, according to the most recently available information. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.

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 6.93%, and is in the middle 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 4.01%, 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 ADJEX over the past three years is 23.53% compared to the category average of 24.43%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 21.08% compared to the category average of 21.75%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors should not forget about beta, an important way to measure a mutual fund's risk compared to the market as a whole. ADJEX has a 5-year beta of 1.08, which means it is likely to be more 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 -2.26, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Holdings

Exploring 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 principally on equities that are traded in the United States.

The mutual fund currently has 97.62% of its holdings in stocks, with an average market capitalization of $23.79 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  1. Technology
  2. Health
  3. Retail Trade
With turnover at about 26.23%, this fund makes more traders than comparable funds in a given year.

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, ADJEX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.99% compared to the category average of 1.14%. So, ADJEX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $1,000; each subsequent investment needs to be at least $50.

Bottom Line

Overall, Azzad Ethical Mid Cap Fund ( ADJEX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Azzad Ethical Mid Cap Fund ( ADJEX ) looks like a somewhat average choice for investors right now.

Want even more information about ADJEX? Then go over to Zacks.com and check out our mutual fund comparison tool, and all of the other great features that we have to help you with your mutual fund analysis for additional information. Want to learn even more? We have a full suite of tools on stocks that you can use to find the best choices for your portfolio too, no matter what kind of investor you are.


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