Is Vanguard Explorer Fund Investor (VEXPX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

VEXPX is one of many different Small Cap Growth funds to choose from. Small Cap Growth mutual funds build portfolios around stocks with market caps under $2 billion and large growth opportunities. Additionally, these portfolios typically highlight smaller companies in promising markets and industries.

History of Fund/Manager

Vanguard Group is based in Malvern, PA, and is the manager of VEXPX. Since Vanguard Explorer Fund Investor made its debut in December of 1967, VEXPX has garnered more than $1.94 billion in assets. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 4.84%, and is 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 11.8%, which places it in the middle 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. VEXPX's standard deviation over the past three years is 17.18% compared to the category average of 15.28%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 18.58% compared to the category average of 16.73%. 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 1.07, which means it is hypothetically more 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. VEXPX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -7.26, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick 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 mostly on equities that are traded in the United States.

The mutual fund currently has 84.03% of its holdings in stocks, which have an average market capitalization of $15.58 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

• Technology
• Industrial Cyclical
• Finance
• Health

With turnover at about 52%, this fund makes 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, VEXPX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.38% compared to the category average of 1.05%. From a cost perspective, VEXPX is actually cheaper than its peers.

Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $3,000; each subsequent investment needs to be at least $1.

Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into consideration. Returns would be less if those were included.

Bottom Line

Overall, Vanguard Explorer Fund Investor ( VEXPX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Vanguard Explorer Fund Investor ( VEXPX ) looks like a somewhat average choice for investors right now.

For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Small Cap Growth, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds 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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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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