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Is T. Rowe Price Financial Services (PRISX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
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If you have been looking for Sector - Finance funds, a place to start could be T. Rowe Price Financial Services (PRISX - Free Report) . PRISX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
PRISX is classified in the Sector - Finance segment by Zacks, and this area is full of possibilities. The financial space is notoriously large, complex, and heavily-regulated, and Sector - Finance mutual funds give investors a stable, diversified approach to investing in this industry. These funds can include everything from banks and investment giants to exchanges and insurance companies, though investors should note that interest rates could have a big impact.
History of Fund/Manager
PRISX is a part of the T. Rowe Price family of funds, a company based out of Baltimore, MD. Since T. Rowe Price Financial Services made its debut in September of 1996, PRISX has garnered more than $724.95 million in assets. The fund's current manager, Gabriel Solomon, has been in charge of the fund since April of 2014.
Performance
Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 16%, and it sits 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 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. Compared to the category average of 15.93%, the standard deviation of PRISX over the past three years is 15.32%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 13.51% compared to the category average of 13.87%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
One cannot ignore the volatility of this segment, however, as it is always important for investors to remember the downside to any potential investment. PRISX lost 59.27% in the most recent bear market and outperformed its peer group by 1.35%. This might suggest that the fund is a better choice than its peers during a bear market.
Even still, the fund has a 5-year beta of 1.14, so investors should note that it is hypothetically more 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 negative alpha over the past 5 years of -1.41, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
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, PRISX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.86% compared to the category average of 1.45%. So, PRISX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.
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 Financial Services has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.
For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Sector - Finance, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information. If you want to check out our stock reports as well, make sure to go to Zacks.com to see all of the great tools we have to offer, including our time-tested Zacks Rank.
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Is T. Rowe Price Financial Services (PRISX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
If you have been looking for Sector - Finance funds, a place to start could be T. Rowe Price Financial Services (PRISX - Free Report) . PRISX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
PRISX is classified in the Sector - Finance segment by Zacks, and this area is full of possibilities. The financial space is notoriously large, complex, and heavily-regulated, and Sector - Finance mutual funds give investors a stable, diversified approach to investing in this industry. These funds can include everything from banks and investment giants to exchanges and insurance companies, though investors should note that interest rates could have a big impact.
History of Fund/Manager
PRISX is a part of the T. Rowe Price family of funds, a company based out of Baltimore, MD. Since T. Rowe Price Financial Services made its debut in September of 1996, PRISX has garnered more than $724.95 million in assets. The fund's current manager, Gabriel Solomon, has been in charge of the fund since April of 2014.
Performance
Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 16%, and it sits 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 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. Compared to the category average of 15.93%, the standard deviation of PRISX over the past three years is 15.32%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 13.51% compared to the category average of 13.87%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
One cannot ignore the volatility of this segment, however, as it is always important for investors to remember the downside to any potential investment. PRISX lost 59.27% in the most recent bear market and outperformed its peer group by 1.35%. This might suggest that the fund is a better choice than its peers during a bear market.
Even still, the fund has a 5-year beta of 1.14, so investors should note that it is hypothetically more 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 negative alpha over the past 5 years of -1.41, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
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, PRISX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.86% compared to the category average of 1.45%. So, PRISX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.
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 Financial Services has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.
For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Sector - Finance, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information. If you want to check out our stock reports as well, make sure to go to Zacks.com to see all of the great tools we have to offer, including our time-tested Zacks Rank.