If you’re looking for a Sector – Tech fund category, then a potential option is Columbia Global Technology Growth Z (CMTFX). CMTFX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
The world of Sector – Tech funds is an area filled with options, and CMTFX 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.
CMTFX is a part of the Columbia family of funds, a company based out of Kansas City, MO. Columbia Global Technology Growth Z made its debut in November of 2000, and since then, CMTFX has accumulated about $1.66 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund is currently managed by Rahul Narang who has been in charge of the fund since July of 2012.
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 18.09%, and it sits in the top third among its category peers. But if you are looking for a shorter time frame, it is also worth looking at its 3-year annualized total return of 25.87%, which places it in the top 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 15.92%, the standard deviation of CMTFX over the past three years is 21.63%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund’s standard deviation is 22.21% compared to the category average of 15.55%. 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 1.24, which means it is hypothetically more volatile than the market at large. 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. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -0.11, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.