Is Oppenheimer Portfolio Series Equity Investor A (OAAIX) A Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

Any investors hoping to find an Allocation Balanced fund could think about starting with Oppenheimer Portfolio Series Equity Investor A OAAIX. OAAIX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

Oppenheimer is based in Centennial, CO, and is the manager of OAAIX. Oppenheimer Portfolio Series Equity Investor A debuted in April of 2005. Since then, OAAIX has accumulated assets of about $934.6 million, according to the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by Mark Hamilton who has been in charge of the fund since August of 2013.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 11.15%, and is in the top 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 11.38%, which places it in the top 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. OAAIX's standard deviation over the past three years is 10.39% compared to the category average of 8.25%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 10.01% compared to the category average of 6.55%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

It's always important to be aware of the downsides to any future investment, so one should not discount the risks that come with this segment. In the most recent bear market, OAAIX lost 53.89% and underperformed its peer group by 17.71%. This means that the fund could possibly be a worse choice than its peers during a down market environment.

Nevertheless, investors should also note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.97, which means it is hypothetically as volatile as the market at large. 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. OAAIX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -3.67, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

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, OAAIX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.46% compared to the category average of 0.90%. OAAIX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $1,000, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

Bottom Line

Overall, Oppenheimer Portfolio Series Equity Investor A has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Oppenheimer Portfolio Series Equity Investor A looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

Don't stop here for your research on Allocation Balanced funds. We also have plenty more on our site in order to help you find the best possible fund for your portfolio. Make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for more information about the world of funds, and feel free to compare OAAIX to its peers as well for additional information. For analysis of the rest of your portfolio, make sure to visit Zacks.com for our full suite of tools which will help you investigate all of your stocks and funds in one place.