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Is Vanguard Capital Opportunity Fund (VHCOX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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If investors are looking at the Mutual Fund Equity Report fund category, Vanguard Capital Opportunity Fund (VHCOX - Free Report) could be a potential option. VHCOX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

VHCOX finds itself in the Vanguard Group family, based out of Malvern, PA. Since Vanguard Capital Opportunity Fund made its debut in August of 1995, VHCOX has garnered more than $1.23 billion in assets. A team of investment professionals is the fund's current manager.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. VHCOX has a 5-year annualized total return of 9.55% and it sits in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 18.29%, 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. The standard deviation of VHCOX over the past three years is 18.62% compared to the category average of 20.57%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 19.57% compared to the category average of 18.14%. 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. Over the past 5 years, the fund has a negative alpha of -1.26. This means 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 mostly on equities that are traded in the United States.

Right now, 93.28% of this mutual fund's holdings are stocks, with an average market capitalization of $133.75 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  • Technology
  • Health
  • Industrial Cyclical
Turnover is about 6%, so those in charge of the fund make fewer trades than its comparable peers.

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, VHCOX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.43% compared to the category average of 0.99%. So, VHCOX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

Investors should also note, that according to our data, the fund does not have any minimum investment requirements.

Bottom Line

Overall, Vanguard Capital Opportunity Fund ( VHCOX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a great potential choice for investors right now.

For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Mutual Fund Equity Report, 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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