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Sizzlin' Returns: Mexico Funds Enjoy Big Gains

Richard Widows

With Cinco de Mayo approaching, now is a good time for some appreciation of our neighbor to the south. But investors holding the closed-end (MXE - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr)Mexico Equity & Income Fund (MXE) are already feeling some appreciation.

The fund's 23.68% total market return for the first quarter captured second place among all closed-end funds. More impressively, its 86.15% gain led the pack for the 12 months ended March 31.

If that weren't enough, it earned a 40.95% three-year annualized return, which was bested only by the closed-end (LDF - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr)Latin America Discovery Fund (LDF) and the (LAQ - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr)Latin America Equity Fund (LAQ). And just to round things out, it also placed third among all closed-end funds with a total market annualized return of 20.03% for 10 years.

Obviously, Mexico has become a destination for investment. As if to underscore that fact, Forbes announced earlier this year that Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim Helu surpassed Berkshire Hathaway's (BRKA - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) Warren Buffett to become the world's second-richest person.

Along with the Mexico Equity & Income fund, two others provide essentially pure plays in the Mexican market: The iShares MSCI Mexico (EWW - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) exchange-traded fund is 100% invested in Mexican investments, while the closed-end Mexico Fund has 92.4% of its portfolio in the country.

For a broader list of funds with Mexican investments, see the accompanying table below. The portfolios of all open-end and closed-end funds as well as ETFs in TheStreet.com Ratings' database were searched for Mexican investments.

The table contains the top 10 open-end funds, top five ETFs and top five closed-end funds, arrayed by percentages of Mexican portfolio holdings.

The results are impressive. Of the 20 funds in the table, 16 have TheStreet.com Ratings' buy grades, with four in the A range, including two with the highest mark of A+.

A dozen also qualified as buy recommendations with grades in the B range, and the remaining four funds in the table were rated as holds with marks in the C range. No grades in the D and E ranges are to be found, which would designate them as sell recommendations.

It's worth taking look at a list of popular Mexican investments held by U.S. funds (below). It shows the number of funds holding each security as well as the cumulative value of the funds' positions in it. The table reflects the combined holdings of open-end mutual funds, closed-end funds and ETFs. In total, 759 U.S. funds hold $344.4 billion in 89 Mexican investments.

The favorite Mexican holding of U.S. funds is wireless telecom operator America Movil SAB de CV (AMX - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) (AMX - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), controlled by Slim. The $11.5 billion combined value of its holdings by 360 U.S. funds in the U.S. is triple the total of U.S. fund investments in the next most popular Mexican security.

Slim also controls the fourth most popular Mexican investment destination of U.S. funds: Telefonos de Mexico SAB de CV (tmx - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr)(TMX). Commonly known as Telmex, it is held by 114 U.S. funds, which hold $2.4 billion worth of its stock.

The sixth most popular target for U.S. funds is Wal-Mart de Mexico SA de SV (WMMVF). Unlike the U.S. Wal-Mart(WMT - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) stock, which has not been a standout performer in recent months, the Mexican Wal-Mart has been rewarding its owners with growth-stock-like performance.

Considering that this is early May, the 11th most popular Mexican investment of U.S. funds should not be neglected. Slightly more than a half-billion dollars' worth of Grupo Modelo SA de CV is held by 48 U.S. funds. Its most popular product, Corona cerveza, is a beer destined to be consumed in generous quantities on Cinco de Mayo.