Virtus Total Return Fund Inc.
Find Ratings Reports- Last Ratings Update:02/29/2024
- Price as of 02/29/2024 :$5.29
- Net Assets:$429.18 Million
- NAV:$6.15
- Premium-13.98%
- Peer Rank:113 of 161
- Investment Rating:C-
- Performance:D-
- RiskB
We rate Virtus Total Return at C-. Positive factors that influence this rating include a low price volatility. The fund invests approximately 70% of its assets in stocks and may be considered for investors seeking a Growth & Income strategy.
Total return ranks well below peers over the last three years. The Virtus Total Return has returned an annual rate of 0.72% since inception. More recently, the fund has generated a total return of 2.19% in the last five years, -4.37% in the last three years, and -5.56% in the last year. How does that compare to other equity funds? In the last five years, it has outperformed 28% of them. It has also outpaced 16% of its competitors on a three year basis and 8% of them over the last year for the period ending 2/29/2024. On a year to date basis, ZTR has returned -2.14%.
Downside risk has been below average. ZTR has a draw down risk of -0.56%, which is the largest price decline experienced over the last three years. This fund has a three year standard deviation of 23.8%. This fund has experienced a high level of volatility in its monthly performance over the last 36 months.
High expense ratio hinders performance. On total assets of $429.18 million, ZTR maintains a high expense ratio compared to its Growth & Income peers of 3.87% to cover all operating costs. Brokerage costs for the fund to buy and sell shares are not included in the expense ratio. As ZTR 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 Virtus Total Return has been managed by Connie M. Luecke for the last 12 years. Over that period, the manager was able to capture more actual gains in excess of the expected return than just 11% of other fund managers.