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Is American Century International Opportunity A (AIVOX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Have you been searching for a Non US - Equity fund? You might want to begin with American Century International Opportunity A (AIVOX - Free Report) . AIVOX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

AIVOX is classified in the Non US - Equity area by Zacks, and this segment is full of potential. Non US - Equity funds focus their investments on companies outside of the United States, which is an important distinction since global mutual funds tend to keep a sizable portion of their portfolio based in the United States. Most of these funds will allocate across emerging and developed markets, and can often extend across cap levels too.

History of Fund/Manager

American Century is based in Kansas City, MO, and is the manager of AIVOX. American Century International Opportunity A debuted in March of 2010. Since then, AIVOX has accumulated assets of about $5.59 million, according to the most recently available information. A team of investment professionals is the fund's current manager.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 1.44%, and it sits 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 15.06%, which places it in the middle 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. Compared to the category average of 12.19%, the standard deviation of AIVOX over the past three years is 17.57%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 18.79% compared to the category average of 13.98%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 1.01, the fund is likely to be as volatile as the market average. 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. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -9.75, which shows 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, AIVOX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.71% compared to the category average of 0.99%. From a cost perspective, AIVOX is actually more expensive than its peers.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $2,500, and each subsequent investment should be at least $50.

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, American Century International Opportunity A ( AIVOX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and therefore looks a somewhat average choice for investors right now.

Want even more information about AIVOX? Then go over to Zacks.com and check out our mutual fund comparison tool, and all of the other great features that we have to help you with your mutual fund analysis 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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