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Is Invesco Gold & Special Minerals A (OPGSX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Sector - Precious Metal fund seekers should not consider taking a look at Invesco Gold & Special Minerals A (OPGSX - Free Report) at this time. OPGSX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

The world of Sector - Precious Metal funds is an area filled with options, such as OPGSX. Usually, Sector - Precious Metal mutual funds invest in stocks with a focus on the mining and production of precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. Here, stocks often trade as leveraged bets of the underlying commodity, meaning they're tied to the metal's prices and can be volatile.

History of Fund/Manager

Invesco is based in Kansas City, MO, and is the manager of OPGSX. Invesco Gold & Special Minerals A debuted in July of 1983. Since then, OPGSX has accumulated assets of about $1.94 billion, according to the most recently available information. Tarun Gupta is the fund's current manager and has held that role since February of 2025.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. OPGSX has a 5-year annualized total return of 22.89%, and it sits in the bottom third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 45.78%, 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, OPGSX's standard deviation comes in at 37.39%, compared to the category average of 15.16%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 36.44% compared to the category average of 16.4%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

The fund has a 5-year beta of 0.93, 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. OPGSX has generated a positive alpha over the past five years of 15.41, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking 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, OPGSX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.94% compared to the category average of 1.01%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, OPGSX is actually cheaper than its peers.

Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $1,000; each subsequent investment needs to 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, Invesco Gold & Special Minerals A ( OPGSX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, worse downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a somewhat weak choice for investors right now.

Don't stop here for your research on Sector - Precious Metal 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 OPGSX 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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