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Any investors hoping to find a Sector - Tech fund could think about starting with USAA Science & Technology Fund (USSCX). USSCX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
USSCX is part of the Sector - Tech category, which boasts an array of different possible selections. With a much more diversified approach, Sector - Tech mutual funds give investors a way to own a stake in a notoriously risky sector. Tech companies are in various industries like semiconductors, software, internet, and networking, among others.
History of Fund/Manager
USSCX is a part of the USAA Group family of funds, a company based out of San Antonio, TX. The USAA Science & Technology Fund made its debut in August of 1997 and USSCX has managed to accumulate roughly $1.31 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.
Performance
Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 14.18%, and it sits 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 16.83%, 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, USSCX's standard deviation comes in at 16.54%, compared to the category average of 13.14%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 15.61% compared to the category average of 13.14%. 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, USSCX lost 52.59% and outperformed its peer group by 1%. This means that the fund could possibly be a better choice than its peers during a down market environment.
Investors should not forget about beta, an important way to measure a mutual fund's risk compared to the market as a whole. USSCX has a 5-year beta of 1.17, which means it is likely to be more volatile than the market average. 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. The fund has produced a positive alpha over the past 5 years of 2.57, which shows that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.