There are plenty of choices in the Small Cap Blend category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that might be worth investigating is T. Rowe Price Institutional Small-Cap Stock (TRSSX Quick QuoteTRSSX - Free Report) . TRSSX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

Zacks categorizes TRSSX as Small Cap Blend, which is an area packed with options. Usually targeting stocks with market caps of less than $2 billion, a Small Cap Blend mutual fund lets investors diversify their funds among other kinds of small-cap equities. This can help reduce risk found in companies that have a lower stock market valuation.

History of Fund/Manager

T. Rowe Price is based in Baltimore, MD, and is the manager of TRSSX. The T. Rowe Price Institutional Small-Cap Stock made its debut in October of 2000 and TRSSX has managed to accumulate roughly $4.45 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. Alex Roik is the fund's current manager and has held that role since July of 2023.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 5.07%, and is 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 16.43%, 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. TRSSX's standard deviation over the past three years is 16.69% compared to the category average of 19.14%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 17.57% compared to the category average of 20.16%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 0.96, the fund is likely to be less volatile than the market average. Another factor to consider is alpha, as it reflects a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark-in this case, the S&P 500. TRSSX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -7.39, demonstrating 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, TRSSX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.66% compared to the category average of 1.16%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, TRSSX is actually cheaper than its peers.

Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $1.00 million; 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

Overall, T. Rowe Price Institutional Small-Cap Stock ( TRSSX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, T. Rowe Price Institutional Small-Cap Stock ( TRSSX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

For additional information on the Small Cap Blend area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into TRSSX too 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.