Is Artisan High Income Fund Investor Shares (ARTFX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

If you have been looking for Index fund category, a potential starting could be Artisan High Income Fund Investor Shares (ARTFX). ARTFX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

Artisan Funds is based in Boston, MA, and is the manager of ARTFX. Artisan High Income Fund Investor Shares made its debut in March of 2014, and since then, ARTFX has accumulated about $1.06 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. Bryan C. Krug is the fund's current manager and has held that role since March of 2014.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 6.09%, 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 6.18%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame.

Risk Factors

It's always important to be aware of the downsides to any future investment, so one should not discount the risks that come with this segment.

Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.02, so it is likely going to be less volatile than the market at large. 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. ARTFX has generated a positive alpha over the past five years of 5.1, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

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, ARTFX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.98% compared to the category average of 0.94%. So, ARTFX is actually more expensive than its peers from a cost perspective.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $1,000, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

Bottom Line

With a rank of 'hold' we aren't getting a good signal one way or another on ARTFX. That is why it might be a good idea to consider other items, such as the fund's expense ratio of 0.98%, and how this compares to other potential options being considered for investment. If cheaper, it might make a decent choice, but a more expensive fund might be worth avoiding. Just make sure to pay attention to its rank in case it shifts in the near future.

This could just be the start of your research on ARTFXin the Index 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. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible.

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