Virtus Emerging Markets Opportunities Fund A (HEMZX)

Emerging Markets has been performing above average for the past 3 years. Some analysts even predict, these emerging market equity funds will outperform other equity mutual funds. The following fund is also one of the best rated funds in emerging market equity fund category. Details about Virtus Emerging Markets Opportunities fund can be found below.

Virtus Emerging Markets Opportunities A (MUTF: HEMZX)

This Virtus Emerging Markets Opportunities fund seeks capital appreciation. This Virtus fund offers investors exposure to emerging economies through well-established companies. This HEMZX fund invests most of its assets (>80%) in equity securities or equity-linked instruments of issuers located in emerging markets countries. This Virtus fund will invest in any market capitalization of companies.

HEMZX Fund Details

• Fund Inception Date: August 11, 1999
• Ticker Symbol: HEMZX (Class A)
• CUSIP: 92828T707
• Beta (3yr): 0.84
• Rank in category (YTD): 1
• Category: Diversified Emerging Markets
• Distribution: 0.60%
• Dividends: Paid Semi-annually
• Capital Gains: N/A
• Net Assets: $1.71 billion
• Number of Years Up: 7 years
• Number of Years Down: 4 years

Updated on July 17th, 2011

Rajiv Jain has been the fund’s lead manager since May 2006. He is also served as the head of the non-US equity team. The fund has a dividend yield of 0.60% per year. The fund’s annual expense ratio is 1.66%. The last dividend was distributed in June 2011. Investor will need $2,500 minimum initial balance to invest in a regular brokerage account and $100 min balance to invest in tax deferred IRA account. This fund has 0.25% 12b1 fee and 5.75% front-end sales load fee.

Fund Returns

Morningstar has rated 5 stars rating for this HEMZX fund. The best 1-year total return was recorded in 2003 with 50.87% within the 7 years positive years. The worst performance occurred in 2008 with -46.04%. The fund’s performance is as follows:

• 1-Year: 24.98%
• 3-Year: 1.54%
• 5-Year: 11.41%
• 10-Year: 14.82%

This Virtus fund can be bought from 89 brokerages include Northwestern Mutual Inv Srvc, TD Ameritrade Institutional Services, Schwab Institutional, Fidelity Retail FundsNetwork, JPMorgan, Firstrade, Scottrade Load, etc. For details about this fund, you can check with your local brokerage agent or brokerage account. Investor can choose from other class such as PICEX (Class C) and HIEMX (Institutional Class).

The top ten holdings of this fund out of 89 holdings as of June 2011 are Housing Development Finance Corp. Ltd (3.97%), HDFC Bank Ltd (3.90%), Souza Cruz SA (3.73%), Companhia de Bebidas das Americas ADS (3.7%), ITC Ltd (3.2%), Baidu Inc. ADS (3.04%), British American Tobacco PLC (2.68%), Itau Unibanco Holding (2.41%), SAB Miller PLC (1.95%) and Semen Gresik (1.94%). The top 5 sectors in this fund include Consumer Staples (38.14%), Financials (19.85%), Information Technology (13.19%), Consumer Discretionary (8.45%), and Materials (5.85%). Top 5 countries are India, Brazil, Cayman Islands, Mexico, and United Kingdom.

Investment risk in this Virtus fund include: Foreign Investment Risk (currency, political, accounting, economic, and market risk), Non Diversification Risk, Small and Mid Sized Companies Risk, etc.

Disclosure: No Position