Is Kinetics Internet Fund No Load (WWWFX) A Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

Any investors hoping to find a Sector - Tech fund could think about starting with Kinetics Internet Fund No Load WWWFX. WWWFX holds 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 Sector - Tech funds is an area filled with options, and WWWFX is one of them. Sector - Tech mutual funds allow investors to own a stake in a notoriously volatile sector with a much more diversified approach. Tech companies can be in any number of industries such as semiconductors, software, internet, networking just to name a few.

History of Fund/Manager

WWWFX is a part of the Kinetics family of funds, a company based out of Sleepy Hollow, NY. Since Kinetics Internet Fund No Load made its debut in October of 1996, WWWFX has garnered more than $118.36 million in assets. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 14.33%, 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 14.96%, which places it in the middle 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. Over the past three years, WWWFX's standard deviation comes in at 15.87%, compared to the category average of 15.28%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 14.55% compared to the category average of 13.71%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors should always remember the downsides to a potential investment, and this segment carries some risks one should be aware of. In the most recent bear market, WWWFX lost 49.63% and outperformed its peer group by 3.3%. This means that the fund could possibly be a better choice than its peers during a down market environment.

Even still, the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.92, so investors should note that it is hypothetically 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. WWWFX's 5-year performance has produced a positive alpha of 0.38, which means managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking 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, WWWFX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.85% compared to the category average of 1.37%. So, WWWFX is actually more expensive than its peers from a cost perspective.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $2,500, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

Bottom Line

Overall, Kinetics Internet Fund No Load has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and higher fees, Kinetics Internet Fund No Load looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

Your research on the Sector - Tech segment doesn't have to stop here. You can check out all the great mutual fund tools we have to offer by going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds to see the additional features we offer as well for additional information. Want to learn even more? We have a full suite of tools on stocks that you can use to find the best choices for your portfolio too, no matter what kind of investor you are.