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Is Van Eck Emerging Markets A (GBFAX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
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If investors are looking at the Non US - Equity fund category, make sure to pass over Van Eck Emerging Markets A (GBFAX - Free Report) . GBFAX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
GBFAX is classified in the Non US - Equity area by Zacks, and this segment is full of potential. Non US - Equity funds focus their investments on companies outside of the United States, which is an important distinction since global mutual funds tend to keep a sizable portion of their portfolio based in the United States. Most of these funds will allocate across emerging and developed markets, and can often extend across cap levels too.
History of Fund/Manager
GBFAX finds itself in the Van Eck family, based out of New York, NY. Van Eck Emerging Markets A made its debut in January of 1994, and since then, GBFAX has accumulated about $119.07 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund's current manager, David A. Semple, has been in charge of the fund since December of 2002.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of -0.23%, 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 4.57%, 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. The standard deviation of GBFAX over the past three years is 16.16% compared to the category average of 10.08%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 15.38% compared to the category average of 10.02%. 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. In the most recent bear market, GBFAX lost 73.44% and underperformed its peer group by 14.99%. This makes the fund a possibly worse choice than its peers during a sliding market environment.
Even still, the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.89, so investors should note that it is hypothetically less volatile than 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. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -6.67, 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, GBFAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.41% compared to the category average of 1.21%. So, GBFAX is actually more expensive than its peers from a cost perspective.
While the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $100.
Bottom Line
Overall, Van Eck Emerging Markets A ( GBFAX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, worse downside risk, and higher fees, this fund looks like a somewhat weak choice for investors right now.
For additional information on the Non US - Equity 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 GBFAX 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.
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Is Van Eck Emerging Markets A (GBFAX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
If investors are looking at the Non US - Equity fund category, make sure to pass over Van Eck Emerging Markets A (GBFAX - Free Report) . GBFAX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
GBFAX is classified in the Non US - Equity area by Zacks, and this segment is full of potential. Non US - Equity funds focus their investments on companies outside of the United States, which is an important distinction since global mutual funds tend to keep a sizable portion of their portfolio based in the United States. Most of these funds will allocate across emerging and developed markets, and can often extend across cap levels too.
History of Fund/Manager
GBFAX finds itself in the Van Eck family, based out of New York, NY. Van Eck Emerging Markets A made its debut in January of 1994, and since then, GBFAX has accumulated about $119.07 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund's current manager, David A. Semple, has been in charge of the fund since December of 2002.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of -0.23%, 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 4.57%, 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. The standard deviation of GBFAX over the past three years is 16.16% compared to the category average of 10.08%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 15.38% compared to the category average of 10.02%. 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. In the most recent bear market, GBFAX lost 73.44% and underperformed its peer group by 14.99%. This makes the fund a possibly worse choice than its peers during a sliding market environment.
Even still, the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.89, so investors should note that it is hypothetically less volatile than 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. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -6.67, 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, GBFAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.41% compared to the category average of 1.21%. So, GBFAX is actually more expensive than its peers from a cost perspective.
While the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $100.
Bottom Line
Overall, Van Eck Emerging Markets A ( GBFAX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, worse downside risk, and higher fees, this fund looks like a somewhat weak choice for investors right now.
For additional information on the Non US - Equity 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 GBFAX 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.