If you have been looking for Large Cap Growth funds, it would not be wise to start your search with Morgan Stanley Inst Growth A (MSEGX). MSEGX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
MSEGX is classified in the Large Cap Growth segment by Zacks, an area full of possibilities. Companies are usually considered to be large-cap if their stock market valuation is more than $10 billion. Large Cap Growth mutual funds invest in many large U.S. firms that are projected to grow at a faster rate than their large-cap peers.
History of Fund/Manager
MSEGX finds itself in the MorgStanley family, based out of New York, NY. Morgan Stanley Inst Growth A made its debut in January of 1996, and since then, MSEGX has accumulated about $2.05 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. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of -0.16%, and is in the bottom third among its category peers. If you’re interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund’s 3-year annualized total return of 29.69%, 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. MSEGX’s standard deviation over the past three years is 29.37% compared to the category average of 12.05%. The fund’s standard deviation over the past 5 years is 33.18% compared to the category average of 14.03%. 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. MSEGX has a 5-year beta of 1.54, which means it is likely to be more 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. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -13.24, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
