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Is Franklin Natural Resources A (FRNRX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
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If you've been stuck searching for Sector - Energy funds, consider Franklin Natural Resources A (FRNRX - Free Report) as a possibility. FRNRX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
FRNRX is one of many Sector - Energy funds to choose from. Sector - Energy mutual funds are comprised of various changing and hugely important industries throughout the massive global energy sector. Even though clean energy is beginning to pick up steam, oil and gas companies have the highest exposure, but carbon-based fuels will be the biggest group of assets in these funds.
History of Fund/Manager
Franklin is based in San Mateo, CA, and is the manager of FRNRX. Franklin Natural Resources A debuted in June of 1995. Since then, FRNRX has accumulated assets of about $239.76 million, according to the most recently available information. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.
Performance
Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. FRNRX has a 5-year annualized total return of 7.77% and is in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 10.91%, which places it in the top 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 FRNRX over the past three years is 23.24% compared to the category average of 16.25%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 32.36% compared to the category average of 17.9%. 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. FRNRX has a 5-year beta of 1.25, which means it is likely to be more volatile than the market average. Another factor to consider is alpha, as it reflects a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark-in this case, the S&P 500. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -5.45, which shows 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, FRNRX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.01% compared to the category average of 0.99%. FRNRX is actually more expensive 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 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, even with its comparatively similar performance, worse downside risk, and higher fees, Franklin Natural Resources A ( FRNRX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and therefore looks a good potential choice for investors right now.
Your research on the Sector - Energy segment doesn't have to stop here. You can check out all the great mutual fund tools we have to offer by going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds to see the additional features we offer 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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Is Franklin Natural Resources A (FRNRX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
If you've been stuck searching for Sector - Energy funds, consider Franklin Natural Resources A (FRNRX - Free Report) as a possibility. FRNRX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
FRNRX is one of many Sector - Energy funds to choose from. Sector - Energy mutual funds are comprised of various changing and hugely important industries throughout the massive global energy sector. Even though clean energy is beginning to pick up steam, oil and gas companies have the highest exposure, but carbon-based fuels will be the biggest group of assets in these funds.
History of Fund/Manager
Franklin is based in San Mateo, CA, and is the manager of FRNRX. Franklin Natural Resources A debuted in June of 1995. Since then, FRNRX has accumulated assets of about $239.76 million, according to the most recently available information. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.
Performance
Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. FRNRX has a 5-year annualized total return of 7.77% and is in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 10.91%, which places it in the top 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 FRNRX over the past three years is 23.24% compared to the category average of 16.25%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 32.36% compared to the category average of 17.9%. 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. FRNRX has a 5-year beta of 1.25, which means it is likely to be more volatile than the market average. Another factor to consider is alpha, as it reflects a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark-in this case, the S&P 500. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -5.45, which shows 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, FRNRX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.01% compared to the category average of 0.99%. FRNRX is actually more expensive 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 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, even with its comparatively similar performance, worse downside risk, and higher fees, Franklin Natural Resources A ( FRNRX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and therefore looks a good potential choice for investors right now.
Your research on the Sector - Energy segment doesn't have to stop here. You can check out all the great mutual fund tools we have to offer by going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds to see the additional features we offer 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.