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Is Hennessy Japan Small Cap Fund Investor (HJPSX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If investors are looking at the Mutual Fund Equity Report fund category, Hennessy Japan Small Cap Fund Investor (HJPSX - Free Report) could be a potential option. HJPSX carries 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

HJPSX finds itself in the Hennessy family, based out of Novato, CA. Since Hennessy Japan Small Cap Fund Investor made its debut in August of 2007, HJPSX has garnered more than $31.63 million in assets. Tadahiro Fujimura is the fund's current manager and has held that role since August of 2007.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of -0.45%, 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 -2.94%, 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. Compared to the category average of 17.05%, the standard deviation of HJPSX over the past three years is 18.56%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 16.47% compared to the category average of 15.29%. 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 0.65, so it is likely going to be less volatile than the market at large. 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. HJPSX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -6.14, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Expenses

Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, HJPSX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.55% compared to the category average of 1.29%. So, HJPSX is actually more expensive than its peers from a cost perspective.

While the minimum initial investment for the product is $2,500, investors should also note that there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

Bottom Line

Overall, Hennessy Japan Small Cap Fund Investor ( HJPSX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and higher fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on HJPSXin 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. For analysis of the rest of your portfolio, make sure to visit Zacks.com for our full suite of tools which will help you investigate all of your stocks and funds in one place.


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