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Is Victory Pioneer Core Equity A (PIOTX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
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There are plenty of choices in the All Cap Value category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that you should consider investigating is Victory Pioneer Core Equity A (PIOTX - Free Report) . PIOTX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
We classify PIOTX in the All Cap Value category, an area rife with potential choices. Like the name suggests, All Cap Value mutual funds invest in small, medium, and large-cap companies, though they end up focusing on bigger firms due to percentage of assets. These funds look for key value characteristics, targeting stocks that boast low P/E ratios, high dividend yields, and whose share prices do not reflect their worth.
History of Fund/Manager
Victory is responsible for PIOTX, and the company is based out of Columbus, OH. Victory Pioneer Core Equity A made its debut in September of 1969, and since then, PIOTX has accumulated about $2.02 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. PIOTX has a 5-year annualized total return of 9.83%, 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 17.85%, 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, PIOTX's standard deviation comes in at 11.78%, compared to the category average of 11.19%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 15.34% compared to the category average of 13.51%. This makes the fund more 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. PIOTX has a 5-year beta of 0.95, which means it is likely to be less volatile than the market average. 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. PIOTX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -3.06, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
Holdings
Investigating the equity holdings of a mutual fund is also a valuable exercise. This can show us how the manager is applying their stated methodology, as well as if there are any inherent biases in their approach. For this particular fund, the focus is primarily on equities that are traded in the United States.
As of the last filing date, the mutual fund has 83.87% of its assets in stocks, which have an average market capitalization of $294.56 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:
Technology
Finance
Industrial Cyclical
Turnover is 44%, which means, on average, the fund makes more trades per year than the comparable average.
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, PIOTX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.84% compared to the category average of 0.88%. From a cost perspective, PIOTX is actually cheaper 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 weak performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Victory Pioneer Core Equity A ( PIOTX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and therefore looks a somewhat average choice for investors right now.
Don't stop here for your research on All Cap Value 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 PIOTX to its peers as well for additional information. Want to learn even more? We have a full suite of tools on stocks that you can use to find the best choices for your portfolio too, no matter what kind of investor you are.
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Is Victory Pioneer Core Equity A (PIOTX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
There are plenty of choices in the All Cap Value category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that you should consider investigating is Victory Pioneer Core Equity A (PIOTX - Free Report) . PIOTX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
We classify PIOTX in the All Cap Value category, an area rife with potential choices. Like the name suggests, All Cap Value mutual funds invest in small, medium, and large-cap companies, though they end up focusing on bigger firms due to percentage of assets. These funds look for key value characteristics, targeting stocks that boast low P/E ratios, high dividend yields, and whose share prices do not reflect their worth.
History of Fund/Manager
Victory is responsible for PIOTX, and the company is based out of Columbus, OH. Victory Pioneer Core Equity A made its debut in September of 1969, and since then, PIOTX has accumulated about $2.02 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. PIOTX has a 5-year annualized total return of 9.83%, 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 17.85%, 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, PIOTX's standard deviation comes in at 11.78%, compared to the category average of 11.19%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 15.34% compared to the category average of 13.51%. This makes the fund more 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. PIOTX has a 5-year beta of 0.95, which means it is likely to be less volatile than the market average. 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. PIOTX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -3.06, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
Holdings
Investigating the equity holdings of a mutual fund is also a valuable exercise. This can show us how the manager is applying their stated methodology, as well as if there are any inherent biases in their approach. For this particular fund, the focus is primarily on equities that are traded in the United States.
As of the last filing date, the mutual fund has 83.87% of its assets in stocks, which have an average market capitalization of $294.56 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:
Turnover is 44%, which means, on average, the fund makes more trades per year than the comparable average.
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, PIOTX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.84% compared to the category average of 0.88%. From a cost perspective, PIOTX is actually cheaper 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 weak performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Victory Pioneer Core Equity A ( PIOTX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and therefore looks a somewhat average choice for investors right now.
Don't stop here for your research on All Cap Value 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 PIOTX to its peers as well for additional information. Want to learn even more? We have a full suite of tools on stocks that you can use to find the best choices for your portfolio too, no matter what kind of investor you are.