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Is American Century Utilities Investor (BULIX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
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If you have been looking for Sector - Utilities funds, a place to start could be American Century Utilities Investor (BULIX - Free Report) . BULIX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
We classify BULIX in the Sector - Utilities category, an area that is rife with possible choices. Sector - Utilities funds focus their investments on firms that provide essential daily services to millions of people like electric power, gas distribution, and water supply. All in all, the utility industry is a perfect fit for those investors looking for stability and low volatility.
History of Fund/Manager
BULIX finds itself in the American Century family, based out of Kansas City, MO. American Century Utilities Investor made its debut in March of 1993, and since then, BULIX has accumulated about $274.01 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 6.23%, and is in the bottom third among its category peers. But if you are looking for a shorter time frame, it is also worth looking at its 3-year annualized total return of 14.74%, 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. The standard deviation of BULIX over the past three years is 15.12% compared to the category average of 14.41%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 16.74% compared to the category average of 15.66%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
The fund has a 5-year beta of 0.61, 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. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -2.38, 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, BULIX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.66% compared to the category average of 1.00%. So, BULIX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.
Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $2,500 and that each subsequent investment needs to be at $50.
Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into consideration. Returns would be less if those were included.
Bottom Line
Overall, American Century Utilities Investor ( BULIX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, American Century Utilities Investor ( BULIX ) looks like a great potential choice for investors right now.
This could just be the start of your research on BULIX in the Sector - Utilities 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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Is American Century Utilities Investor (BULIX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
If you have been looking for Sector - Utilities funds, a place to start could be American Century Utilities Investor (BULIX - Free Report) . BULIX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
We classify BULIX in the Sector - Utilities category, an area that is rife with possible choices. Sector - Utilities funds focus their investments on firms that provide essential daily services to millions of people like electric power, gas distribution, and water supply. All in all, the utility industry is a perfect fit for those investors looking for stability and low volatility.
History of Fund/Manager
BULIX finds itself in the American Century family, based out of Kansas City, MO. American Century Utilities Investor made its debut in March of 1993, and since then, BULIX has accumulated about $274.01 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 6.23%, and is in the bottom third among its category peers. But if you are looking for a shorter time frame, it is also worth looking at its 3-year annualized total return of 14.74%, 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. The standard deviation of BULIX over the past three years is 15.12% compared to the category average of 14.41%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 16.74% compared to the category average of 15.66%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
The fund has a 5-year beta of 0.61, 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. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -2.38, 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, BULIX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.66% compared to the category average of 1.00%. So, BULIX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.
Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $2,500 and that each subsequent investment needs to be at $50.
Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into consideration. Returns would be less if those were included.
Bottom Line
Overall, American Century Utilities Investor ( BULIX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, American Century Utilities Investor ( BULIX ) looks like a great potential choice for investors right now.
This could just be the start of your research on BULIX in the Sector - Utilities 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.