Is Wasatch Emerging India Fund (WAINX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

On the lookout for a Pacific Rim - Equity fund? Starting with Wasatch Emerging India Fund (WAINX) is one possibility. WAINX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

The world of Pacific Rim - Equity funds is an area filled with options, such as WAINX. Pacific Rim - Equity mutual funds usually invest in companies with a big presence in the export-focused markets of Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea. These funds also invest less than 10% of their assets in Japanese companies since Japan mutual funds are incredibly popular.

History of Fund/Manager

WAINX is a part of the Wasatch family of funds, a company based out of Salt Lake City, UT. Since Wasatch Emerging India Fund made its debut in April of 2011, WAINX has garnered more than $198.59 million in assets. The fund's current manager, Ajay Krishnan, has been in charge of the fund since April of 2011.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 12.29%, and is 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 12.39%, 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 fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 16.71% compared to the category average of 1.48%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

One cannot ignore the volatility of this segment, however, as it is always important for investors to remember the downside to any potential investment.

Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.27, so it is likely going to be 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. With a positive alpha of 9.74, 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, WAINX is a no load fund and it has an expense ratio of 1.72%.

Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $2,000; each subsequent investment needs to be at least $100.

Bottom Line

This puts this fund from Wasatch in the top 20% of all mutual funds we have a rank on right now. As a result, this is likely an excellent choice for investors seeking an option in the Pacific Rim - Equity category.

This could just be the start of your research on WAINXin the Pacific Rim - Equity 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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