Is Matthews India Fund (MINDX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

If you have been looking for Pacific Rim – Equity funds, it would not be wise to start your search with Matthews India Fund (MINDX). MINDX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 5 (Strong Sell), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

MINDX is one of many Pacific Rim – Equity funds to choose from. Pacific Rim – Equity mutual funds typically invest in companies throughout the dominant export-focused markets of Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea. Since Japan mutual funds are already popular in their own right, these Pacific funds will usually invest less than 10% of their assets in Japanese companies.

Matthews Asia is based in San Francisco, CA, and is the manager of MINDX. Since Matthews India Fund made its debut in October of 2005, MINDX has garnered more than $600.28 million in assets. The fund’s current manager, Peeyush Mittal, has been in charge of the fund since April of 2018.

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 16.67%, and it sits in the middle 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 8.55%, 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 14.38%, the standard deviation of MINDX over the past three years is 13.57%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 14.59% compared to the category average of 17.87%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

With a 5-year beta of 0.46, the fund is likely to be less volatile than the market average. 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. MINDX’s 5-year performance has produced a positive alpha of 8.07, which means managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.