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Is USAA NASDAQ-100 Index Fund (USNQX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

Are you on the hunt for a Mutual Fund Equity Report fund? You should think about starting with USAA NASDAQ-100 Index Fund (USNQX). The fund does not have a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, though we have been able to explore other metrics like performance, volatility, and cost.

History of Fund/Manager

Victory is responsible for USNQX, and the company is based out of Columbus, OH. The USAA NASDAQ-100 Index Fund made its debut in October of 2000 and USNQX has managed to accumulate roughly $3.41 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. Mannik Dhillon is the fund's current manager and has held that role since July of 2019.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 17.48%, 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 21.56%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame.

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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. USNQX's standard deviation over the past three years is 20.92% compared to the category average of 18.17%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 19.36% compared to the category average of 16.03%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 1.09, the fund is likely to be more volatile than the market average. 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. USNQX has generated a positive alpha over the past five years of 3.01, demonstrating 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 largely on equities that are traded in the United States.

This fund is currently holding about 98.38% stock in stocks, which have an average market capitalization of $622.71 billion. The fund has the heaviest exposure to the following market sectors:

  1. Technology

  2. Retail Trade

Turnover is 10%, which means this fund makes fewer trades than comparable funds.

Expenses

Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, USNQX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.42% compared to the category average of 0.78%. So, USNQX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $3,000; each subsequent investment needs to be at least $50.

Bottom Line

This could just be the start of your research on USNQXin the Mutual Fund Equity Report 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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