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Is Hennessy Japan Small Cap Fund Investor (HJPSX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
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Any investors hoping to find a Pacific Rim - Equity fund could think about starting with Hennessy Japan Small Cap Fund Investor (HJPSX - Free Report) . HJPSX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
HJPSX is one of many Pacific Rim - Equity funds to choose from. Pacific Rim - Equity mutual funds typically invest in companies throughout the dominant export-focused markets of Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea. Since Japan mutual funds are already popular in their own right, these Pacific funds will usually invest less than 10% of their assets in Japanese companies.
History of Fund/Manager
Hennessy is responsible for HJPSX, and the company is based out of Novato, CA. The Hennessy Japan Small Cap Fund Investor made its debut in August of 2007 and HJPSX has managed to accumulate roughly $34.25 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. 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. HJPSX has a 5-year annualized total return of 4.52% and it sits in the bottom 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 -1.39%, 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 HJPSX over the past three years is 14.36% compared to the category average of 15.03%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 16.36% compared to the category average of 15.8%. 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. HJPSX has a 5-year beta of 0.61, which means it is likely to be less volatile than the market average. 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 -4.59, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
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, HJPSX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.51% compared to the category average of 1.01%. From a cost perspective, HJPSX is actually more expensive than its peers.
Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $2,500 and that each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.
Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into considiration. Returns would be less if those were included.
Bottom Line
Overall, even with its comparatively weak performance, average downside risk, and higher fees, Hennessy Japan Small Cap Fund Investor ( HJPSX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and therefore looks a good potential choice for investors right now.
This could just be the start of your research on HJPSXin the Pacific Rim - Equity 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.
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Is Hennessy Japan Small Cap Fund Investor (HJPSX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
Any investors hoping to find a Pacific Rim - Equity fund could think about starting with Hennessy Japan Small Cap Fund Investor (HJPSX - Free Report) . HJPSX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
HJPSX is one of many Pacific Rim - Equity funds to choose from. Pacific Rim - Equity mutual funds typically invest in companies throughout the dominant export-focused markets of Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea. Since Japan mutual funds are already popular in their own right, these Pacific funds will usually invest less than 10% of their assets in Japanese companies.
History of Fund/Manager
Hennessy is responsible for HJPSX, and the company is based out of Novato, CA. The Hennessy Japan Small Cap Fund Investor made its debut in August of 2007 and HJPSX has managed to accumulate roughly $34.25 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. 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. HJPSX has a 5-year annualized total return of 4.52% and it sits in the bottom 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 -1.39%, 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 HJPSX over the past three years is 14.36% compared to the category average of 15.03%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 16.36% compared to the category average of 15.8%. 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. HJPSX has a 5-year beta of 0.61, which means it is likely to be less volatile than the market average. 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 -4.59, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
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, HJPSX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.51% compared to the category average of 1.01%. From a cost perspective, HJPSX is actually more expensive than its peers.
Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $2,500 and that each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.
Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into considiration. Returns would be less if those were included.
Bottom Line
Overall, even with its comparatively weak performance, average downside risk, and higher fees, Hennessy Japan Small Cap Fund Investor ( HJPSX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and therefore looks a good potential choice for investors right now.
This could just be the start of your research on HJPSXin the Pacific Rim - Equity 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.