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Is Franklin Real Estate Security A (FREEX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
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Having trouble finding a Sector - Real Estate fund? Franklin Real Estate Security A (FREEX - Free Report) is a potential starting point. FREEX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
FREEX is one of many Sector - Real Estate funds to choose from. Sector - Real Estate mutual funds are known to invest in real estate investment trusts (REITs). A popular income vehicle thanks to its taxation rules, a REIT is required to pay out at least 90% of its income annually to avoid double taxation. This technique makes securities in these funds high dividend players, and even bond-like in some instances, though their risk is similar to equities.
History of Fund/Manager
FREEX finds itself in the Franklin family, based out of San Mateo, CA. The Franklin Real Estate Security A made its debut in January of 1994 and FREEX has managed to accumulate roughly $191.24 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. Daniel Scher is the fund's current manager and has held that role since May of 2014.
Performance
Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. FREEX has a 5-year annualized total return of 2.89%, and is in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 8.43%, which places it in the bottom 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, FREEX's standard deviation comes in at 15.66%, compared to the category average of 12.16%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 18.56% compared to the category average of 14.19%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
The fund has a 5-year beta of 0.94, so investors should note that 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. With a negative alpha of -8.37, managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
Expenses
As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, FREEX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.06% compared to the category average of 0.97%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, FREEX is actually more expensive than its peers.
Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $1,000; 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, even with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and higher fees, Franklin Real Estate Security A ( FREEX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and therefore looks a good potential choice for investors right now.
Don't stop here for your research on Sector - Real Estate funds. We also have plenty more on our site in order to help you find the best possible fund for your portfolio. Make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for more information about the world of funds, and feel free to compare FREEX to its peers 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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Is Franklin Real Estate Security A (FREEX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
Having trouble finding a Sector - Real Estate fund? Franklin Real Estate Security A (FREEX - Free Report) is a potential starting point. FREEX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
FREEX is one of many Sector - Real Estate funds to choose from. Sector - Real Estate mutual funds are known to invest in real estate investment trusts (REITs). A popular income vehicle thanks to its taxation rules, a REIT is required to pay out at least 90% of its income annually to avoid double taxation. This technique makes securities in these funds high dividend players, and even bond-like in some instances, though their risk is similar to equities.
History of Fund/Manager
FREEX finds itself in the Franklin family, based out of San Mateo, CA. The Franklin Real Estate Security A made its debut in January of 1994 and FREEX has managed to accumulate roughly $191.24 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. Daniel Scher is the fund's current manager and has held that role since May of 2014.
Performance
Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. FREEX has a 5-year annualized total return of 2.89%, and is in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 8.43%, which places it in the bottom 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, FREEX's standard deviation comes in at 15.66%, compared to the category average of 12.16%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 18.56% compared to the category average of 14.19%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
The fund has a 5-year beta of 0.94, so investors should note that 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. With a negative alpha of -8.37, managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
Expenses
As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, FREEX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.06% compared to the category average of 0.97%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, FREEX is actually more expensive than its peers.
Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $1,000; 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, even with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and higher fees, Franklin Real Estate Security A ( FREEX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and therefore looks a good potential choice for investors right now.
Don't stop here for your research on Sector - Real Estate funds. We also have plenty more on our site in order to help you find the best possible fund for your portfolio. Make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for more information about the world of funds, and feel free to compare FREEX to its peers 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.