Yahoo Finance Is Vanguard Institutional Index Plus (VIIIX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
Are you on the hunt for a Mutual Fund Equity Report fund? You should think about starting with Vanguard Institutional Index Plus (VIIIX). The fund does not have a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, though we have been able to explore other metrics like performance, volatility, and cost.
History of Fund/Manager
VIIIX is a part of the Vanguard Group family of funds, a company based out of Malvern, PA. Since Vanguard Institutional Index Plus made its debut in July of 1997, VIIIX has garnered more than $147.55 billion in assets. A team of investment professionals is the fund's current manager.
Performance
Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 11.11%, 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 10.5%, which places it in the top 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, VIIIX's standard deviation comes in at 17.74%, compared to the category average of 16.13%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 18.81% compared to the category average of 17.11%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
With a 5-year beta of 1, the fund is likely to be as volatile as the market average. 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. VIIIX has generated a positive alpha over the past five years of 0.02, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
Holdings
Exploring 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.
The mutual fund currently has 76.96% of its holdings in stocks and it has 2.5% of assets in foreign securities. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:
Technology
Finance
Turnover is 2%, which means, on average, the fund makes fewer trades than the average comparable fund.
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, VIIIX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.02% compared to the category average of 0.80%. From a cost perspective, VIIIX is actually cheaper than its peers.
Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $100 million and that each subsequent investment needs to be at $1
Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into considiration. Returns would be less if those were included.
Bottom Line
Your research on the Mutual Fund Equity Report segment doesn't have to stop here. You can check out all the great mutual fund tools we have to offer by going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds to see the additional features we offer as well 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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