Aberdeen International Equity A (GIGAX) Fund

Year 2011 has not been a good year to many international stock funds. Most funds have a negative return. Using a contrarian view, year 2012 may provide good opportunity for value investor to invest in these funds. As the top rated fund, Aberdeen International Equity fund managed to rank in the top 2% among its peers in 2011. Details about this fund review can be found below.

Aberdeen International Equity A (Symbol: GIGAX)

Aberdeen International Equity fund

The Aberdeen International Equity A fund’s objective is to achieve long term capital appreciation. This Aberdeen fund invests in stocks issued by companies that are located in, or that derive a substantial portion of their earnings or revenues from, a number of countries around the world other than the United States. This GIGAX fund may also invest in developing market countries. This best stock fund may invest in common stock, preferred stock, securities convertible into common stock or securities.

Fund Profile

• Fund Inception Date: 08/30/2000
• Ticker Symbol: GIGAX
• CUSIP: 003019445
• Beta (3yr): 1.04
• Rank in category (2011): 2%
• Category: Foreign Large Blend
• Distribution Rate: 2.22%
• Net Assets: $463 million
• Sales Load: 5.75%
• Expense Ratio: 1.57%
• Capital Gains: N/A
• Number of Years Up: 7 years
• Number of Years Down: 4 years

Updated on 02/04/2012

Since January 2009, the lead manager of fund is Stephen Docherty. The other portfolio managers are Jamie Cumming, Andrew McMenigall, Bruce Stout, and Samantha Fitzpatrick. The fund inception date is August 30th, 2000. The expense ratio of this foreign large blend stock fund is 1.57%. The average in the category is 1.32%. This GIGAX fund has 2.22% dividend yield. This yield is distributed quarterly. The last dividend distributed in December 21st, 2011 was $ 0.0458. This top performer class A fund has a sales load of 5.75%. It currently has total net assets of  $463 million.

Based on the load adjusted return, this Top International Stock fund has returned 11.02% over the past 3 years and 7.65% over the past decade. This fund has 5-stars rating from Morningstar for its outstanding performance. It has recorded 7 years with positive return with the best achievement in year 2003 with 38.33%. For 2011, this Aberdeen International Equity fund has returned -10.47%.

This top equity fund can be purchased from various brokerages. There are 98 brokerages which offer this stock fund. Investor can start investing with $1,000 initial funding for regular brokerage account or IRA account. Investor can also find other classes of this fund such as GIGCX (Class C), GIGIX (Institutional Class), and GIGSX (Institutional Service Class). Some of these classes may offer better expense ratio fee and no sales load. The GIGSX fund has 1.37% expense ratio fee. It also doesn’t have any sales load.
Investment risks include foreign stock risk, liquidity risk, political risk, stock market risk, management risk, etc.

As of January 2012, the top 10 stocks in this fund are Vodafone, BAT, Roche, Novartis, Zurich Financial Services, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Nestle, QBE Insurance, Samsung Electronics, and Tenaris. The top 5 sectors are: Financial Services, Consumer Defensive, Energy, Industrials, and Healthcare.

Disclosure: No Position

Other top global stock mutual funds:

• Harding Loevner International Equity Portfolio (HLMNX)
• BlackRock International Opportunities Investor (BREAX)