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Is JPMorgan Large Cap Value Fund A (OLVAX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Mutual Fund Equity Report fund seekers should consider taking a look at JPMorgan Large Cap Value Fund A (OLVAX - Free Report) . OLVAX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

J.P. Morgan is based in Boston, MA, and is the manager of OLVAX. The JPMorgan Large Cap Value Fund A made its debut in February of 1992 and OLVAX has managed to accumulate roughly $232.76 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. Scott Blasdell is the fund's current manager and has held that role since April of 2013.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. OLVAX has a 5-year annualized total return of 6.79% and is in the top 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 9.66%, which places it in the top 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 OLVAX over the past three years is 25.34% compared to the category average of 17.03%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 22.34% compared to the category average of 15%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 1.08, which means it is hypothetically more volatile than the market at large. 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 -2.07, 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 principally on equities that are traded in the United States.

Right now, 95.14% of this mutual fund's holdings are stocks, which have an average market capitalization of $106.56 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  1. Finance
  2. Health
With turnover at about 121%, this fund makes more trades in a given year than the average of 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, OLVAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.93% compared to the category average of 0.99%. OLVAX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

While the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $50.

Bottom Line

Overall, JPMorgan Large Cap Value Fund A ( OLVAX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, worse downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a good potential 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 OLVAX too 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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