USAA Precious Metals and Minerals Mutual Fund (USAGX)

USAA Precious Metals and Minerals Fund is a precious metals equity mutual fund. It invests in companies involved in gold, precious metals and minerals.

USAA Precious Metals and Minerals (Ticker: USAGX)

The investment aim of this USAA Precious Metals and Minerals fund is to seek long-term capital appreciation and to protect against inflation. This equity fund invests majority of assets in the equity securities of domestic and foreign companies mainly engaged in the exploration, mining, or processing of gold and other precious metals and minerals. The other precious metals or minerals can be platinum, silver, and diamonds.

Fund Profile

• Fund Inception Date: August 14, 1984
• Ticker Symbol: USAGX
• CUSIP: 903287100
• Beta (3yr): 0.82
• Rank in category (YTD): 55%
• Category: Equity Precious Metals
• Distribution: 0.25%
• Capital Gains: 0%
• Expense Ratio: 1.15%
• Net Assets: $ 1.91 billion
• Number of Years Up: 15 years
• Number of Years Down: 11 years
• Annual Turnover Rate: 24.00%

Updated on 8/29/2012

Dan Denbow has been managing this USAA mutual fund since September 2008. It has an expense ratio of 1.15% while the average ratio in Equity Precious Metals category is 1.40%. There is no management fee for investing in it. It also has a dividend yield of 0.25% only. The annual holdings turnover as of May 8, 2012 is 24%. It has total net assets of $1.91 billion. There is also no sales charge fee.

Ranked with 4 stars by Morningstar, this precious metals stock fund has YTD return of -7.04%. It also has Bronze rating from Morningstar. The best total return was occurred in year 2003. The worst 1-year total return was happened in 1997 with -38.19%. Based on the load adjusted return, the performance of the fund was as follow:

• 1-year: -25.91%
• 3-year: 17.36%
• 5-year: 9.66%
• 10-year: 18.98%

The minimum initial investment is $3,000 for brokerage account. For retirement account, you only need $250. The minimum subsequent investment needed is $50 for both accounts. Investors can buy this mutual fund through 28 brokerages. They are T. Rowe Price, JP Morgan, Td Ameritrade Inc, Dreyfus NTF, Vanguard NTF, TD Ameritrade Retail, Bear Stearns, etc.

As of April 30, 2012, the top ten holdings of this precious metals fund are Goldcorp Inc (5.81%), Newcrest Mining (5.31%), Eldorado Gold Corp (5.29%), Yamana Gold Inc (5.27%), Newmont Mining Corp Holdings Co (4.66%), Aurico Gold Inc (4.51%), Allied Nevada Gold Corp RD (3.99%), Iamgold Corp (3.96%), Kinross Gold Corp (3.77%) and Anglogold Ashanti Ltd (3.66%). The other classes of this fund are Adviser Shares (UPMMX) and Institutional Shares (UIPMX).

Principal investment risks of this fund are market risk, emerging market risk, currency risk, foreign investment risk, management style risk, etc.

Pros:

• No sales Load
• Low annual portfolio turnover rate

Disclosure: No Position