Looking for a Pacific Rim - Equity fund? You may want to consider Matthews India Fund (MINDX Quick QuoteMINDX - Free Report) as a possible option. MINDX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

The world of Pacific Rim - Equity funds is an area filled with options, such as MINDX. Pacific Rim - Equity mutual funds usually invest in companies with a big presence in the export-focused markets of Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea. These funds also invest less than 10% of their assets in Japanese companies since Japan mutual funds are incredibly popular.

History of Fund/Manager

MINDX is a part of the Matthews Asia family of funds, a company based out of San Francisco, CA. Since Matthews India Fund made its debut in October of 2005, MINDX has garnered more than $356.47 million in assets. Peeyush Mittal is the fund's current manager and has held that role since April of 2018.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. MINDX has a 5-year annualized total return of 1.92%, and is in the top third among its category peers. If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3-year annualized total return of 3.42%, 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. Over the past three years, MINDX's standard deviation comes in at 14.65%, compared to the category average of 13.15%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 13.61% compared to the category average of 14.02%. 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. MINDX has a 5-year beta of 0.43, 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. MINDX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -5.6, demonstrating 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, MINDX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.34% compared to the category average of 1.17%. From a cost perspective, MINDX 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 $100.

Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into consideration. Returns would be less if those were included.

Bottom Line

Overall, Matthews India Fund ( MINDX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and higher fees, Matthews India Fund ( MINDX ) looks like a somewhat average choice for investors right now.

For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Pacific Rim - Equity, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds 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.