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Is Wasatch Emerging India Fund (WAINX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

If investors are looking at the Pacific Rim - Equity fund category, Wasatch Emerging India Fund (WAINX) could be a potential option. WAINX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

The world of Pacific Rim - Equity funds is an area filled with options, such as WAINX. 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

WAINX finds itself in the Wasatch family, based out of Salt Lake City, UT. Wasatch Emerging India Fund made its debut in April of 2011, and since then, WAINX has accumulated about $246.50 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund is currently managed by Ajay Krishnan who has been in charge of the fund since April of 2011.

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Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 18%, and it sits in the top third among its category peers. But if you are looking for a shorter time frame, it is also worth looking at its 3-year annualized total return of 17.61%, which places it in the top 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. WAINX's standard deviation over the past three years is 25.83% compared to the category average of 20.3%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 21.85% compared to the category average of 16.96%. 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. WAINX has a 5-year beta of 0.7, which means it is likely to be less volatile than 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. The fund has produced a positive alpha over the past 5 years of 6.65, which shows that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

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, WAINX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.54% compared to the category average of 1.40%. From a cost perspective, WAINX is actually more expensive than its peers.

While the minimum initial investment for the product is $2,000, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $100.

Bottom Line

Overall, Wasatch Emerging India Fund ( WAINX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and higher fees, Wasatch Emerging India Fund ( WAINX ) looks like a good potential 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. For analysis of the rest of your portfolio, make sure to visit Zacks.com for our full suite of tools which will help you investigate all of your stocks and funds in one place.


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