If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Equity Report funds, a place to start could be Columbia Dividend Income A (LBSAX). LBSAX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Load Error
History of Fund/Manager
Columbia is based in Kansas City, MO, and is the manager of LBSAX. Columbia Dividend Income A made its debut in September of 2002, and since then, LBSAX has accumulated about $4.25 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund’s current manager is a team of investment professionals.
Performance
Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. LBSAX has a 5-year annualized total return of 9.38% 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 8.69%, 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. Over the past three years, LBSAX’s standard deviation comes in at 18.52%, compared to the category average of 17.58%. The fund’s standard deviation over the past 5 years is 16.33% compared to the category average of 15.38%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.84, which means it is hypothetically less volatile than the market at large. 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 positive alpha of 1.1. This means 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 95.04% of its holdings in stocks, which have an average market capitalization of $216.36 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:
- Finance
- Technology
- Industrial Cyclical
- Non-Durable
Turnover is about 16%, so those in charge of the fund make fewer trades than its comparable peers.
Expenses
For investors, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is key, since costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing. Competition is heating up in this space, and a lower cost product will likely outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, all things being equal. In terms of fees, LBSAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.90% compared to the category average of 0.99%. LBSAX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.
While the minimum initial investment for the product is $2,000, investors should also note that there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.
Bottom Line
Overall, Columbia Dividend Income A ( LBSAX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.
For additional information on the Mutual Fund Equity Report area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into LBSAX too for additional information. Want to learn even more? We have a full suite of tools on stocks that you can use to find the best choices for your portfolio too, no matter what kind of investor you are.