Allianz NFJ International Value Fund (AFJAX) Class A

The Allianz NFJ International Value Fund (AFJAX) is a top rated stock mutual fund. This foreign large value equity fund invests in non-U.S. companies. You can find the fund review in this post.

Allianz NFJ International Value A (Ticker: AFJAX)

The investment aim of Allianz NFJ International Value fund is to seek long-term capital growth and income. This fund invests majority of its net assets in common stocks and other equity securities of non-U.S. companies with market capitalizations greater than $1 billion. It may invest in preferred stocks, convertible securities, American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), and warrants. It may invest <50% of assets in emerging market securities.

Fund Profile

Allianz NFJ International Value A

• Fund Inception Date: March 31, 2005
• Ticker Symbol: AFJAX
• CUSIP: 018920702
• Beta (3yr): 0.98
• Rank in category (YTD): 3%
• Category: Foreign Large Value
• Distribution: 2.12%
• Capital Gains: 0%
• Expense Ratio: 1.21%
• Net Assets: $ 2.05 billion
• Number of Years Up: 4 years
• Number of Years Down: 2 years
• Annual Turnover Rate: 48%

updated on 7/31/2012

Benno A. Fischer, has been managing this mutual fund since January 2003. The class A of this fund was first introduced to public in March 2005. It also has a 12-month dividend yield of 2.12%. The latest dividend received by its investors was in March 22, 2012 ($0.03). The average expense fee in the Foreign Large Value category is 1.23%. The fund has 48.00% annual holdings turnover as of April 13, 2012. This mutual fund has total net assets of $2.05 billion. Its expense ratio is 1.21%.

Morningstar has ranked this foreign large value mutual fund with 5-stars ratings. The fund has YTD return of 13.18%. Since its inception, the fund has managed to perform with 4 years of positive return and 2 years of negative return.  The 1-year best total return is in 2009 with 41.32%. The worst 1 year total return was occurred in 2008 with -44.59%. Based on the load adjusted return, the fund has returned -9.24% over the past 1-year and 18.67% over the past 3-year.

Investors can start investing in this fund with minimum initial investment of $1,000 for brokerage account. The minimum subsequent investment is $50. There is no retirement account available. This mutual fund can be purchased from many brokerages, such as Edward Jones, Vanguard, JP Morgan, Scottrade Load, Schwab Institutional, E Trade Financial, Morgan Stanley Advisors, etc. The other classes of this fund are:

• Class C (AFJCX)
• Class D (AFJDX)
• Class P (AFVPX)
• Class R (ANJRX)
• Adm Class (AIVAX)

As of March 2012, the top 10 holdings of this international stock fund are Cia Saneamento Basico (3.62%), Zurich Financial Services AG (3.15%), Astrazeneca PLC (2.93%), Sasol Ltd (2.92%), Royal Dutch Shell PLC (2.82%), France Telecom SA (2.80%), Yamana Gold Inc (2.53%), Sanofi (2.48%), Nitto Denko Corp (2.28%) and KDDI Corp (2.22%). The top country breakdown is Japan (16%), United Kingdom (16%), Brazil (11%), Canada (10%) and France (6%).

The principal investing risks are: Management risk, market risk, equity securities risk, smaller company risk, non-U.S. investment risk, emerging markets risk, currency risk, credit risk, liquidity risk, turnover risk, etc.

Advantages and Disadvantages

The pros of investing in this fund are:

• Good track record
• Low initial investment requirement

The cons are:

• Class A has a high sales load of 5.5%
• Average expense ratio

Disclosure: No Position