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Is Harbor Capital Appreciation Institutional (HACAX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If you're looking for a Large Cap Growth fund category, then a potential option is Harbor Capital Appreciation Institutional (HACAX - Free Report) . HACAX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

HACAX is classified in the Large Cap Growth segment by Zacks, an area full of possibilities. Companies are usually considered to be large-cap if their stock market valuation is more than $10 billion. Large Cap Growth mutual funds invest in many large U.S. firms that are projected to grow at a faster rate than their large-cap peers.

History of Fund/Manager

Harbor Funds is based in Chicago, IL, and is the manager of HACAX. The Harbor Capital Appreciation Institutional made its debut in December of 1987 and HACAX has managed to accumulate roughly $17.76 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 9.24%, and is in the bottom 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 25.44%, 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. HACAX's standard deviation over the past three years is 16.51% compared to the category average of 11.79%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 20.87% compared to the category average of 14.17%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

The fund has a 5-year beta of 1.21, so investors should note that it is hypothetically more volatile than the market at large. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. Over the past 5 years, the fund has a negative alpha of -5.67. This means 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, HACAX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.67% compared to the category average of 0.93%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, HACAX is actually cheaper than its peers.

While the minimum initial investment for the product is $50,000, investors should also note that 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, even with its comparatively weak performance, worse downside risk, and lower fees, Harbor Capital Appreciation Institutional ( HACAX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and therefore looks a somewhat average choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on HACAX in the Large 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. 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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