Any investors hoping to find a Large Cap Growth fund could think about starting with Schwab Select Large Cap Growth Fund (LGILX). LGILX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
We classify LGILX in the Large Cap Growth category, an area rife with potential choices. Large Cap Growth funds invest in many large U.S. companies that are expected to grow much faster compared to other large-cap stocks. To be considered large-cap, companies must have a market cap over $10 billion.
Schwab Funds is based in San Francisco, CA, and is the manager of LGILX. Schwab Select Large Cap Growth Fund made its debut in July of 2009, and since then, LGILX has accumulated about $2.33 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund’s current manager is a team of investment professionals.
Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. LGILX has a 5-year annualized total return of 14.78% and is 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 11.74%, 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. Compared to the category average of 21.28%, the standard deviation of LGILX over the past three years is 22.1%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund’s standard deviation is 21.94% compared to the category average of 21.37%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 1.12, so it is likely going to be more volatile than 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. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -1.16, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
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, LGILX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.74% compared to the category average of 0.93%. So, LGILX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.