Any investors who are searching for Mutual Fund Equity Report funds should take a look at Vanguard Institutional Index Plus (VIIIX Quick QuoteVIIIX - Free Report) . The fund does not have a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, though we have been able to explore other metrics like performance, volatility, and cost.

History of Fund/Manager

VIIIX is a part of the Vanguard Group family of funds, a company based out of Malvern, PA. Since Vanguard Institutional Index Plus made its debut in July of 1997, VIIIX has garnered more than $132.61 billion in assets. Donald M. Butler is the fund's current manager and has held that role since December of 2000.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 9.81%, and it sits 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 12.14%, 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. VIIIX's standard deviation over the past three years is 20.84% compared to the category average of 19.41%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 18.7% compared to the category average of 16.99%. This makes the fund more 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. VIIIX has a 5-year beta of 1, which means it is likely to be as volatile as 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 positive alpha over the past 5 years of 0.02, which shows that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Holdings

Examining 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.

This fund is currently holding about 91.64% stock in stocks, and these companies have an average market capitalization of $246.80 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

• Technology
• Finance

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, VIIIX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.02% compared to the category average of 0.78%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, VIIIX is actually cheaper than its peers.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $100 million, and each subsequent investment should be at least $1.

Bottom Line

This could just be the start of your research on VIIIXin 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 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.