WHV International Equity A Fund (WHVAX)

WHV International Equity fund is one of top ranked foreign large blend stock mutual funds. Considered as international stock mutual funds, this WHVAX fund invests mainly in non US companies with growth potential. More review can be found below.

WHV International Equity A (WHVAX)

The WHV International Equity fund seeks to achieve long-term capital growth. This mutual fund generally invests in a combination of equity securities of foreign companies with a potential for earnings growth. This stock fund may focus its investments in specific sectors or industries and may not have exposure to all economic sectors.

Fund Profile

• Inception Date: 07/31/2009
• Ticker Symbol: WHVAX
• CUSIP: 360873871
• Beta (3yr): 1.09
• Rank in category (YTD): 14%
• Category: Foreign Large Blend
• Yield: 0.18%
• Capital Gains: 0%
• Expense Ratio: 1.50%
• Net Assets: $ 274.86 million
• Number of Years Up: 1 year
• Number of Years Down: 1 year
• Annual Turnover Rate: 2.2%

Updated on 3/23/2012

Richard K. Hirayama is the current fund manager. He started managing this investment fund in 2008 with the Institutional Shares first. As part of Wentworth, Hauser and Violich fund family, this mutual fund has 4-stars rating from Morningstar. The 12-month dividend yield is 0.18%. The most recent dividend was distributed in December 2011 ($0.03). The annual holdings turnover is quite low (2.20%) compared to the average in the Foreign Large Blend category (57.06%). The 12b1 fee is 0.25% and the front-end sales load fee is 5.75%.

WHV International Equity

This best stock fund has managed to achieve 1 year in positive return and 1 year in negative return.  It has YTD return of 7.50%. The performance of this fund in 2010 is 16.10% and in 2011 is -15.05%. Based on load adjusted return, the fund has returned -15.72% over the past 1-year and 20.11% over the past 3-year. The 3-year beta is 1.09%.

This stock mutual fund is available for purchase from a limited list of 11 brokerages. They are Pershing FundCenter, Scottrade Load, JPMorgan, CommonWealth PPS, Fidelity Institutional FundsNetwork, RBC Wealth Management-Network Eligible, and RBC Wealth Management-Wrap Eligible. The minimum first purchase for brokerage account is $5,000 and $2,000 for retirement account. Another class of this fund is Class I (WHVIX). This WHVIX fund doesn’t have a sales load and is rated with 5 stars rating.

Fund Composition

The top sector allocations as of December 2011 are Energy (39.4%), Materials (22.7%), Consumer Staples (17.2%) and Industrials (16.2%).  The regional allocations are North America (40.0%), Europe-exclude U.K. (39.4%), United Kingdom (13.1%), Asia/Pacific exclude Japan (5.0%) and Emerging Markets (2.6%).

Top 10 Best Mutual Funds for 2012 & 2013

As of December 2011, the top 10 holdings are Weatherford International Ltd (5.3%), Schlumberger Ltd (5.0%), Canadian National Railway Co (5.0%), Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd (4.8%), Noble Corp (4.7%), BHP Biliton Ltd (4.6%), Nestle SA (4.4%), Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc (4.4%), British American Tobacco (4.2%) and Diageo (4.2%).

The investment risks of this WHV International Equity fund include Equity Securities Risk, Foreign Securities Risk, Emerging Market Risk, Management Risk, Market Risk, Sector Risk, Valuation Risk, etc.

Pros & Cons

The goods of this mutual fund are:

• The class A fund is rated with 4 stars rating
• Average expense ratio fee

The bads are:

• High sales load of 5.75%
• Low yield

Disclosure: No Position

Other Mutual Funds:

• BlackRock International Opportunities Inv A (BREAX)