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Is Vanguard Target Retirement 2035 Fund (VTTHX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

If you've been stuck searching for Mutual Fund Equity Report funds, consider Vanguard Target Retirement 2035 Fund (VTTHX) as a possibility. VTTHX has no Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, but we have been able to look into other metrics like performance, volatility, and cost.

History of Fund/Manager

VTTHX finds itself in the Vanguard Group family, based out of Malvern, PA. Vanguard Target Retirement 2035 Fund debuted in October of 2003. Since then, VTTHX has accumulated assets of about $81.47 billion, according to the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 5.83%, and it sits 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 8.43%, which places it in the middle 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. Compared to the category average of 16.42%, the standard deviation of VTTHX over the past three years is 13.8%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 14.17% compared to the category average of 14.46%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

With a 5-year beta of 0.74, the fund is likely to be less volatile than the market average. Another factor to consider is alpha, as it reflects a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark-in this case, the S&P 500. VTTHX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -2.98, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Expenses

As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, VTTHX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.09% compared to the category average of 0.47%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, VTTHX is actually cheaper than its peers.

While the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $1.

Bottom Line

This could just be the start of your research on VTTHXin 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. If you want to check out our stock reports as well, make sure to go to Zacks.com to see all of the great tools we have to offer, including our time-tested Zacks Rank.

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