August 17, 2011

FBR Gas Utility Index Investor Fund (GASFX)

Utilities sector equity fund can be one of the defensive sector stock fund to invest during the economic crisis or bear market. These utilities sector funds provide regular dividend and additional growth of capital. One of this top rated utilities sector funds is described below.

FBR Gas Utility Index Investor (MUTF: GASFX)
FBR Gas Utility Index Investor Fund (GASFX)
FBR Gas Utility Index fund

The FBR Gas Utility Index fund objective is to provide income and capital appreciation. This FBR fund intends to provide investment results that replicate the performance of the American Gas Association Stock Index. This index maintained by the American Gas Association, a national trade association of natural gas companies. It invests under regular circumstances >85% of net assets in the common stock of companies that have natural gas distribution and transmission operations.

GASFX Fund Details
  • Fund Inception Date: May 10, 1989
  • Ticker Symbol: GASFX
  • CUSIP: 30246J604
  • Beta (3yr): 0.76
  • Rank in category (YTD): 1
  • Category: Utilities
  • Distribution: 2.45%
  • Capital Gains: N/A
  • Number of Years Up: 15 years
  • Number of Years Down: 6 years
  • Total Net Assets: $322.95 million
updated on 8/4/2011

Since 2001, Winsor Aylesworth has been the lead manager of this FBR Fund. The fund’s expense ratio is 0.76% per year. This expense fee is lower than the average expense ratio of utilities category fund which is 1.39%. The FBR GASFX fund is a no load fund and has no front-end sales load fee. The fund’s total net assets are $322.95 million. This best rated fund also has a dividend yield of 2.45%.

This FBR Gas Utility Index Investor fund has 5-stars rating from Morningstar.  It is also top rated utilities sector fund in US News. The best 1-year total return was recorded in 2000 with 55.86%. The worst performance year occurred in 2008 with -28.30%.  The performance of this fund for the previous years is as below:
  • Year 2010: 12.40%
  • Year 2009: 23.92%
  • Year 2008: -28.30%
  • Year 2007: 14.03%
There are around 81 brokerages which offer this GASFX fund, such as JP Morgan, T Rowe Price, Td Ameritrade Inc, Vanguard NTF, Royal Alliance, Ameriprise Brokerage, Dreyfus NTF, Robert W. Baird & Co, Ameritas NTF, Firstrade NTF, Matrix Financial Solutions, etc. Investor will need $2,000 minimum initial investment to invest in the regular brokerage account of this fund and $1,000 for retirement account (IRA). There is no other class available beside this no-load class.

As of March 2011, this fund has a total of 63 holdings. The top ten holdings represent 47.3% of the total portfolio. They are El Paso Corp (5.0%), TransCanada Corp (5.0%), Williams Companies Inc (4.9%), Spectra Energy Corp (4.9%), Enbridge Inc (4.9%), National Grid PLC (4.9%), ONEOK Inc (4.7%), Sempra Energy Corp (4.6%), Dominion Resources Inc (4.5%) and PG&E Corp (3.9%).

Disclosure: No Position

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