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Is Eventide Gilead Fund N (ETGLX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Mutual Fund Equity Report fund seekers should not consider taking a look at Eventide Gilead Fund N (ETGLX - Free Report) at this time. ETGLX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 5 (Strong Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

ETGLX is a part of the Eventide family of funds, a company based out of Willow Grove, PA. Since Eventide Gilead Fund N made its debut in July of 2008, ETGLX has garnered more than $559.39 million in assets. The fund is currently managed by Finny Kuruvilla who has been in charge of the fund since July of 2008.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. ETGLX has a 5-year annualized total return of 14.12% and is 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 9.76%, 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. ETGLX's standard deviation over the past three years is 24.68% compared to the category average of 16.99%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 22.31% compared to the category average of 15.18%. 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. ETGLX has a 5-year beta of 1.12, which means it is likely to be more 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. The fund has produced a positive alpha over the past 5 years of 0.23, 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, ETGLX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.28% compared to the category average of 1.15%. From a cost perspective, ETGLX is actually more expensive than its peers.

Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000 and that each subsequent investment needs to be at $50.

Bottom Line

Overall, Eventide Gilead Fund N ( ETGLX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, worse downside risk, and higher fees, Eventide Gilead Fund N ( ETGLX ) looks like a poor potential choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on ETGLXin the Mutual Fund Equity Report category. Consider going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information about this fund, and all the others that we rank as well 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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