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Is Janus Henderson Global Life Science A (JFNAX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Mutual Fund Equity Report fund seekers should consider taking a look at Janus Henderson Global Life Science A (JFNAX - Free Report) . JFNAX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

JFNAX is a part of the Janus Fund family of funds, a company based out of Boston, MA. The Janus Henderson Global Life Science A made its debut in July of 2009 and JFNAX has managed to accumulate roughly $273.05 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by Andrew Acker who has been in charge of the fund since July of 2009.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 8.74%, 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 2.73%, which places it in the middle third during this time-frame.

It is important to note that the product's returns may not reflect all its expenses. Any fees not reflected would lower the returns. Total returns do not reflect the fund's [%] sale charge. If sales charges were included, total returns would have been lower.

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 JFNAX over the past three years is 14.82% compared to the category average of 14.99%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 16.95% compared to the category average of 15.7%. 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. JFNAX has a 5-year beta of 0.73, which means it is likely to be less 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 -0.57, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

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, JFNAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.98% compared to the category average of 0.99%. JFNAX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $2,500, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into considiration. Returns would be less if those were included.

Bottom Line

Overall, Janus Henderson Global Life Science A ( JFNAX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average 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 JFNAX too 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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