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Is Columbia Small Cap Growth Fund I Class Y (CSGYX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If you have been looking for Small Cap Growth funds, a place to start could be Columbia Small Cap Growth Fund I Class Y (CSGYX - Free Report) . CSGYX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

The world of Small Cap Growth funds is an area filled with options, such as CSGYX. These funds tend to create their portfolios around stocks that sport large growth opportunities and market capitalization of less than $2 billion. The companies in these portfolios are usually on the smaller side, and are in up-and-coming industries and markets.

History of Fund/Manager

CSGYX finds itself in the Columbia family, based out of Kansas City, MO. The Columbia Small Cap Growth Fund I Class Y made its debut in July of 2009 and CSGYX has managed to accumulate roughly $736.93 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.

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 5.69%, and it sits in the middle 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 22.64%, 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 CSGYX over the past three years is 20.39% compared to the category average of 12.95%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 22.84% compared to the category average of 14.59%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 1.22, the fund is likely to be more 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. CSGYX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -9.43, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Holdings

Investigating 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 primarily on equities that are traded in the United States.

Right now, 89.86% of this mutual fund's holdings are stocks, which have an average market capitalization of $9.47 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  • Technology
  • Other
  • Health
  • Non-Durable

This fund's turnover is about 122%, so the fund managers are making more traders than comparable funds in a given year.

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, CSGYX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.83% compared to the category average of 0.98%. So, CSGYX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $0, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

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

Bottom Line

Overall, Columbia Small Cap Growth Fund I Class Y ( CSGYX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, worse downside risk, and lower fees, Columbia Small Cap Growth Fund I Class Y ( CSGYX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on CSGYX in the Small Cap Growth 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. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible.


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