John Hancock Hedged Equity & Income Fund of Beneficial Interest
Find Ratings Reports- Last Ratings Update:02/29/2024
- Price as of 02/29/2024 :$10.22
- Net Assets:$144 Million
- NAV:$11.79
- Premium-13.32%
- Peer Rank:69 of 161
- Investment Rating:C
- Performance:C-
- RiskB-
We rate J Hancock Hedged Eqty & Inc Fd at C. Positive factors that influence this rating include a greater than above average total return and low expense structure. The fund invests approximately 92% of its assets in stocks and may be considered for investors seeking a Growth & Income strategy.
Total return ranks above peers over the last three years. The J Hancock Hedged Eqty & Inc Fd has returned an annual rate of 4.15% since inception. More recently, the fund has generated a total return of 2.95% in the last five years, 5.11% in the last three years, and -3.95% in the last year. How does that compare to other equity funds? In the last five years, it has outperformed 35% of them. It has also outpaced 61% of its competitors on a three year basis and 10% of them over the last year for the period ending 2/29/2024. On a year to date basis, HEQ has returned 2.29%.
Downside risk has been below average. HEQ has a draw down risk of -30.07%, which is the largest price decline experienced over the last three years. This fund has a three year standard deviation of 15.8%. This fund has had moderate volatility in its monthly performance over the last 36 months.
High expense ratio hinders performance. On total assets of $144.00 million, HEQ maintains a high expense ratio compared to its Growth & Income peers of 1.23% to cover all operating costs. Brokerage costs for the fund to buy and sell shares are not included in the expense ratio. As HEQ is a closed end fund, it has no front end or back end load.
Manager tenure is a net positive but performance record lags managerial peers. Substandard fund managers tend to be replaced, so a long tenure is usually a good sign that a fund is achieving its objectives. The J Hancock Hedged Eqty & Inc Fd has been managed by Gregg R. Thomas for the last 13 years. Over that period, the manager was able to capture more actual gains in excess of the expected return than just 42% of other fund managers.