Mutual Fund Investing
Top Hybrid Funds in April
Kevin Baker
05/15/08 - 03:30 PM EDT
Of the five types of hybrid mutual funds we track, the 19 convertible-security funds finished April with the highest average one-month return at 4.36%. The trailing four categories are ranked by the average one-month total return for each group.
The best performing convertible fund for April is the Franklin Convertible Securities A(FISCX - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr). This D+ rated fund gained 7.55% in one month, enough to pay back the front load of 5.75%.
The fund is apportioned to 63.8% corporate securities of companies like Microchip Technology(MCHP - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Best Buy(BBY - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and VeriSign(VRSN - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr).
It's allocated 31.9% to preferred shares, including those of McMoRan Exploration(MMR - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), Avery Dennison(AVY - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and Entergy(ETR - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr).
The category in second place is global asset allocation, averaging 3.48% for the month. This is one of the most flexible types of mutual-fund categories, as it can generally choose among any of the classes of investment from anywhere around the world.
The C+ rated Purisima Total Return Fund(PURIX - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) topped this group of 41 funds gaining 7.84% in April.
Unfortunately, as the fund is not sold to the public, the only way to invest in it is to be one of the smaller private clients of Fisher Investments.
A representative of Fisher said the fund has a current allocation of about 55% foreign and the remaining domestic. The firm considers the Morgan Stanley World Index as its internal benchmark for comparison.
The third-place category of domestic asset allocation is led by the TCW LifePlan Aggressive Fund(TGPGX - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr).
The group averaged 3.46% while the individual fund showed a performance of 7.78% in April. This LifePlan fund invests in a portfolio of other TCW funds, including 37.99% TCW Large Cap Growth Fund( TGLCX - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), 20.57% TCW Diversified Value Fund( TGDVX - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), 11.88% TCW Growth Equities Fund( TGGEX - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), 11.86% TCW Value Opportunities Fund( TGVOX - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), 11.61% TCW Core Fixed Income Fund( TGCFX - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), 6.52% TCW Relative Value Small Cap Fund( TGOIX - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and 3.75% TCW Small Cap Growth Fund(TGSCX - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr).
The net result is a highly diversified fund with 93% invested in U.S. securities.
| Best Performing Open-End Hybrid Mutual Funds by Objective for April |
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| Objective | Obj 1 Month Avg % | Fund (Ticker) Rating | Total Return 1 Month % | Total Return 3 Months % | Total Return 1 Year % |
| Convertible | 4.36 | Franklin Convertible Securities A (FISCX) D+ | 7.55 | 2.68 | -4.49 |
| Asset Allocation - Global | 3.48 | Purisima Total Return Fund (PURIX) C+ | 7.84 | 6.69 | 1.75 |
| Asset Allocation - Domestic | 3.46 | TCW LifePlan Aggressive Fund (TGPGX) U | 7.78 | 5.75 | -1.41 |
| Balanced - Global | 3.12 | New Covenant Balanced Growth (NCBGX) C+ | 3.36 | -0.38 | -2.92 |
| Balanced - Domestic | 3.04 | CGM Mutual Fund (LOMMX) B+ | 11.88 | 8.38 | 38.30 |
| Source: TheStreet.com Ratings | |||||