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Is T. Rowe Price Value Fund (TRVLX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If you've been stuck searching for Large Cap Value funds, consider T. Rowe Price Value Fund (TRVLX - Free Report) as a possibility. TRVLX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

T. Rowe Price is based in Baltimore, MD, and is the manager of TRVLX. The T. Rowe Price Value Fund made its debut in September of 1994 and TRVLX has managed to accumulate roughly $21.21 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund's current manager, Mark S. Finn, has been in charge of the fund since December of 2009.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. TRVLX has a 5-year annualized total return of 14.88% and it sits in the top third among its category peers. If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3-year annualized total return of 8.84%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame.

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 TRVLX over the past three years is 10.32% compared to the category average of 9.29%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 9.96% compared to the category average of 9.89%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

It's always important to be aware of the downsides to any future investment, so one should not discount the risks that come with this segment. In TRVLX's case, the fund lost 54.32% in the most recent bear market and underperformed comparable funds by 4.2%. This might suggest that the fund is a worse choice than its peers during a bear market.

Nevertheless, with a 5-year beta of 1.02, the fund is likely to be as volatile as 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. TRVLX's 5-year performance has produced a negative alpha of -0.53, which means 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, 98.68% of this mutual fund's holdings are stocks, with an average market capitalization of $114.07 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  1. Finance
  2. Technology
  3. Non-Durable
  4. Health

Turnover is 91%, which means this fund makes more traders than comparable funds in a given year.

Expenses

Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, TRVLX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.80% compared to the category average of 1.05%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, TRVLX is actually cheaper than its peers.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $2,500, and each subsequent investment should be at least $100.

Bottom Line

Overall, T. Rowe Price Value Fund TRVLX has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, T. Rowe Price Value Fund TRVLX looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on TRVLX in the Large Cap Value 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. And don't forget, Zacks has all of your needs covered on the equity side too! Make sure to check out Zacks.com for more information on our screening capabilities, Rank, and all our articles as well.


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