John Hancock Regional Bank Fund (FRBAX)

John Hancock Regional Bank Fund (FRBAX) is a financial sector stock fund. This mutual fund focuses on equities of financial related companies including banks.

John Hancock Regional Bank Fund (FRBAX)

The investment objective of John Hancock Regional Bank Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation. Its second objective is to seek moderate income. This stock mutual fund uses its assets to buy equities of regional banks and lending companies such as commercial and industrial banks, savings and loan associations and bank holding companies. It may also invest in other U.S. and foreign financial services companies or lending companies and money center banks. It may invest < 5% of assets in non-financial services sectors and < 5% of net assets in junk bonds.

Fund Details

• Fund Inception Date: 01/2/1992
• Ticker Symbol: FRBAX
• CUSIP: 409905106
• Beta (3yr): 0.97
• Rank in category (YTD): 34%
• Category: Financial
• Distribution: 0.45%
• Capital Gains: 0%
• Expense Ratio: 1.36%
• Net Assets: $ 592.87 million
• Number of Years Up: 14 years
• Number of Years Down: 5 years
• Annual Turnover Rate: 16.00%

Updated on 2/19/2013

This best performer financial sector fund was first introduced to public market in January 1992. Susan A. Curry is currently managing this equity fund. She is the assistant vice president and portfolio manager of MFC Global (U.S.). The annual expense ratio is 1.36% and the category average ratio is 1.75%. It also has 0.30% management fee and 5% front-end sales load fee. The total net assets are $592.87 million. It also has holdings turnover 16.00%. The current shares price is $14.04 (12/30/2012).

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The Year-To-Date return of this fund is 22.09%. It also has 5-year annualized return of -2.62%. This fund has 3-stars rating from Morningstar. The best 1-year total return was recorded in 1997 with 53.92%. The worst return was occurred in 2008 with -25.48%. It has used S&P Composite 1500 Banks Index as its benchmark. Based on the load adjusted return, the performance of this fund is as below:

• 1-year: 19.34%
• 3-year: 7.72%
• 5-year: -3.62%
• 10-year: 2.43%

The FRBAX fund can be purchased from 118 brokerages. Some of the brokerages are E Trade Financial, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Scottrade Load, Pershing Fund Center, Schwab Institutional, Morgan Stanley Advisors, etc. Investors, who are interested in this fund, can invest with a minimum initial investment of $2,500 for brokerage account. There is no minimum subsequent investment. This fund is also available in Class B (FRBFX) and Class C (FRBCX).

As of September 30, 2012, the 10 largest equity holdings are U.S. Bancorp (4.27%), Wells Fargo & Company (4.25%), BB&T Corp (4.11%), PNC Financial Services Group Inc (3.94%), JP Morgan Chase & Company (3.86%), SunTrust Banks Inc (3.81%), Cullen/ Frost Bankers Inc (3.80%), Independent Bank Corp (3.28%), Bank of America Corp (3.22%) and SVB Financial Group (2.81%). They represent 37.35% of the total assets.

According to the fund prospectus, the principal investment risks are active management risk, equity securities risk, fixed-income securities risk, hedging, derivatives and other strategic transactions risks,
industry or sector investing risk, large company risk, liquidity risk, lower-rated fixed-income securities risk and high-yield securities risk, medium and smaller company risk, etc.

Disclosure: No Position

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