There are plenty of choices in the Index category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that might be worth investigating is Hennessy Gas Utility Investor (GASFX Quick QuoteGASFX - Free Report) . GASFX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

GASFX is a part of the Hennessy family of funds, a company based out of Novato, CA. Hennessy Gas Utility Investor debuted in May of 1989. Since then, GASFX has accumulated assets of about $424.59 million, according to the most recently available information. The fund's current manager, Ryan C. Kelley, has been in charge of the fund since March of 2013.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 11.91%, 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 11.43%, 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. Over the past three years, GASFX's standard deviation comes in at 12.18%, compared to the category average of 12.35%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 15.05% compared to the category average of 14.01%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.65, which means it is hypothetically less volatile than the market at large. 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. The fund has produced a positive alpha over the past 5 years of 1.8, which shows that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking 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, GASFX is a no load fund and it has an expense ratio of 0.97%.

Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $2,500; each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.

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

Bottom Line

This puts this fund from Hennessy in the top 40% of all mutual funds we have a rank on right now. As a result, this is likely an excellent choice for investors seeking an option in the Index category.

Your research on the Index 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. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible.