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Is T. Rowe Price Institutional Mid-Cap Equity Growth (PMEGX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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On the lookout for a Mid Cap Growth fund? Starting with T. Rowe Price Institutional Mid-Cap Equity Growth (PMEGX - Free Report) should not be a possibility at this time. PMEGX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

Zacks categorizes PMEGX as Mid Cap Growth, a segment packed with options. Mid Cap Growth mutual funds aim to target companies with a market capitalization between $2 billion and $10 billion that are also expected to exhibit more extensive growth opportunities for investors than their peers. A firm is typically considered to be a growth stock if it consistently posts impressive sales and/or earnings growth.

History of Fund/Manager

T. Rowe Price is based in Baltimore, MD, and is the manager of PMEGX. T. Rowe Price Institutional Mid-Cap Equity Growth made its debut in July of 1996, and since then, PMEGX has accumulated about $2.58 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund is currently managed by Donald Easley who has been in charge of the fund since January of 2025.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. PMEGX has a 5-year annualized total return of 2.09%, 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 8.14%, 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. PMEGX's standard deviation over the past three years is 14.19% compared to the category average of 18.35%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 16.59% compared to the category average of 20.08%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors should not forget about beta, an important way to measure a mutual fund's risk compared to the market as a whole. PMEGX has a 5-year beta of 0.98, which means it 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 -9.27, 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, PMEGX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.62% compared to the category average of 1.05%. From a cost perspective, PMEGX is actually cheaper than its peers.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $1.00 million, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

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 lower fees, T. Rowe Price Institutional Mid-Cap Equity Growth ( PMEGX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and therefore looks a somewhat weak choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on PMEGX in the Mid Cap Growth 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. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible.

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