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Is Schwab International Index (SWISX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
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Have you been searching for a Mutual Fund Equity Report fund? You might want to begin with Schwab International Index (SWISX - Free Report) . SWISX has no Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, but we have been able to look into other metrics like performance, volatility, and cost.
History of Fund/Manager
Schwab Funds is based in San Francisco, CA, and is the manager of SWISX. The Schwab International Index made its debut in May of 1997 and SWISX has managed to accumulate roughly $7.13 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. David Rios is the fund's current manager and has held that role since April of 2017.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. SWISX has a 5-year annualized total return of 4.6% and it sits in the top third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 9.04%, 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. SWISX's standard deviation over the past three years is 18.82% compared to the category average of 18.42%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 18.45% compared to the category average of 18.42%. 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. SWISX has a 5-year beta of 0.87, 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. SWISX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -5.52, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick 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, SWISX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.06% compared to the category average of 0.79%. So, SWISX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.
This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $0, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.
Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into considiration. Returns would be less if those were included.
Bottom Line
This could just be the start of your research on SWISXin 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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Is Schwab International Index (SWISX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
Have you been searching for a Mutual Fund Equity Report fund? You might want to begin with Schwab International Index (SWISX - Free Report) . SWISX has no Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, but we have been able to look into other metrics like performance, volatility, and cost.
History of Fund/Manager
Schwab Funds is based in San Francisco, CA, and is the manager of SWISX. The Schwab International Index made its debut in May of 1997 and SWISX has managed to accumulate roughly $7.13 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. David Rios is the fund's current manager and has held that role since April of 2017.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. SWISX has a 5-year annualized total return of 4.6% and it sits in the top third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 9.04%, 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. SWISX's standard deviation over the past three years is 18.82% compared to the category average of 18.42%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 18.45% compared to the category average of 18.42%. 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. SWISX has a 5-year beta of 0.87, 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. SWISX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -5.52, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick 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, SWISX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.06% compared to the category average of 0.79%. So, SWISX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.
This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $0, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.
Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into considiration. Returns would be less if those were included.
Bottom Line
This could just be the start of your research on SWISXin 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.