Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Is Dreyfus Select Managers Small Cap Growth I (DSGIX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

Read MoreHide Full Article

If you've been stuck searching for Small Cap Growth funds, consider Dreyfus Select Managers Small Cap Growth I as a possibility. DSGIX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

DSGIX is part of the Small Cap Growth category, and this segment boasts an array of many other possible options. Small Cap Growth mutual funds usually focus their portfolios on stocks with large growth opportunities and a market cap of under $2 billion. These portfolios tend to feature small companies in up-and-coming industries and markets.

History of Fund/Manager

Dreyfus Premier is based in New York, NY, and is the manager of DSGIX. The Dreyfus Select Managers Small Cap Growth I made its debut in July of 2010 and DSGIX has managed to accumulate roughly $20.40 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. A team of investment professionals is the fund's current manager.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 10.44%, and it sits in the bottom 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 18.08%, which places it in the middle third during this time-frame.

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. DSGIX's standard deviation over the past three years is 13.08% compared to the category average of 9.96%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 13.98% compared to the category average of 9.81%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors should always remember the downsides to a potential investment, and this segment carries some risks one should be aware of.

Even still, the fund has a 5-year beta of 1.01, so investors should note that it is hypothetically as volatile as the market at large. 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. DSGIX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -2.74, 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 principally on equities that are traded in the United States.

This fund is currently holding about 96.05% stock in stocks, which have an average market capitalization of $3.38 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  1. Technology
  2. Health
  3. Industrial Cyclical
  4. Other
  5. Services
Turnover is 95.5%, which means this 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, DSGIX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.98% compared to the category average of 1.31%. DSGIX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $1,000; each subsequent investment needs to be at least $100.

Bottom Line

Overall, Dreyfus Select Managers Small Cap Growth I ( DSGIX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Dreyfus Select Managers Small Cap Growth I ( DSGIX ) looks like a great potential choice for investors right now.

For additional information on the Small Cap Growth area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into DSGIX too 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.

Published in