Vanguard Target Retirement 2025 Fund (VTTVX)

Vanguard Target Retirement 2025 fund (VTTVX) is a popular target date mutual fund. This Vanguard fund invests in stocks and bonds. It will adjust its assets over time. This balanced fund provides broad diversification while incrementally decreasing exposure to equities and increasing exposure to bonds as each fund’s target retirement date approaches.

This Vanguard Target Retirement 2025 fund continues to adjust for approximately seven years after that date until their allocations match that of the Target Retirement Income Fund.

VTTVX Fund Profile

• Fund Inception Date: 10/27/2003
• Ticker Symbol: VTTVX
• CUSIP: 92202E409
• Beta (3yr): 1.10
• Rank in category (YTD): 4%
• Category: Target Date 2021-2025
• Distribution Yield: 1.71%
• Capital Gains: -
• Expense Ratio: 0.17%
• Net Assets: $ 32.1 billion
• Number of Years Up: 8 year
• Number of Years Down: 2 year

Best Airlines, Semiconductor Stocks in 2014

Find top performing industry stocks in 2014. Top sectors are airlines, semiconductor, aluminum, hospitals, drugs, REIT, etc.

This post will look into the top performing stocks, industry, and sector in 2014. In 2014, the S&P 500 index has YTD return of 15.74%. NASDAQ Composite has a year-to-date return of 15.09%. Dow Jones Industrials Average has a YTD return of 11.47%. The small cap (Russell 2000) has a YTD return of 5.75%.

YTD top performing industry stocks in 2014 are:

1. Photographic Equipment & Supplies 95.89% (YTD Return %)
2. Major Airlines 73.47%
3. Semiconductor- Memory Chips 61.58%
4. Diversified Computer Systems 45.60%
5. Aluminum 45.39%
6. Regional Airlines 44.69%
7. Hospitals 44.63%
8. Semiconductor - Broad Line 43.89%
9. Internet Service Providers 43.67%
10. Electronic Equipment 39.91%
11. Auto Parts Stores 39.32%
12. Drug Manufacturers - Other 38.60%
13. Drugs - Generic 38.45%
14. REIT – Residential 36.99%
15. Home Health Care 35.64%

Top Performing Small Value ETFs 2014

Small value ETFs are investing in undervalue U.S. companies stocks with small market capitalization. Most of the time, the stock price is trading lower than its book value. These exchange traded funds may provide high dividend yield for income.

Best Stock Exchange Traded Funds

These top small value funds are selected based on its YTD performance in 2014. Unlike mutual fund, these exchange traded funds don’t have a sales load or a transaction fee. You can find the fund review and other fund information below such as the yield, expense ratio, fund manager, top holdings, top sectors, etc.

YTD top performing small value ETFs 2014 are:

1. PowerShares S&P SmallCap Low Volatility ETF (XSLV) 10.9%
2. Vanguard Small-Cap Value ETF (VBR) 10.85%
3. iShares Morningstar Small-Cap Value ETF (JKL) 10.13%
4. Guggenheim S&P MidCap 400 Pure Value ETF (RFV) 8.48%
5. WisdomTree SmallCap Dividend ETF (DES) 7.39%
6. iShares S&P Small-Cap 600 Value ETF (IJS) 7.38%
7. Vanguard S&P Small-Cap 600 Value ETF (VIOV) 7.26%
8. First Trust Mid Cap Value AlphaDEX ETF (FNK) 6.2%

Auto Dealerships & Casino Stocks Strike Back

The auto dealership & casino stocks strike back. Top performing sector stocks of weeks 52, 2014 are auto dealerships, resorts & casinos, internet service providers, etc.

This post will look into the top performing stocks, industry, and sector. The S&P 500 index has a weekly return of 0.90%. NASDAQ Composite has a weekly return of 0.87%. Dow Jones Industrials Average has a weekly return of 1.40%. The small cap (Russell 2000) has a return of 1.64%.

Best weekly performance of industry stocks of week 52, 2014 (December 22, 2014 – December 28, 2014) are:

1. Photographic Equipment & Supplies 21.05%
2. Synthetics 10.31%
3. Auto Dealerships 5.34%
4. Resorts & Casinos 5.20%
5. Internet Service Providers 5.00%
6. Surety & Title Insurance 4.71%
7. Long Distance Carriers 4.69%
8. Rental & Leasing Services 4.59%
9. Oil & Gas Drilling & Exploration 4.49%
10. Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing 4.23%

Nuveen Municipal Value Fund (NUV)

Nuveen Municipal Value Fund (NUV) is one of the popular municipal closed end funds. This bond fund seeks to provide current income exempt from federal income taxes and its secondary objective is the enhancement of portfolio value. It uses its assets to purchase selection of tax-exempt bonds and municipal market sectors.

NUV Fund Profile

• Fund Inception Date: 06/17/1987
• Ticker Symbol: NUV
• CUSIP: 670928100
• Rank in category (YTD): 96%
• Category: Municipal Bond
• Distribution Rate: 4.34%
• Effective Leverage: 0%
• Capital Gains: -
• Base Expense Ratio: 0.53%
• Net Assets: $ 2.09 billion
• Annual Turnover Rate: 51%

Nuveen Municipal Value Fund Info

The fund manager is Thomas C. Spalding Jr since 1987. With assets of $2.09 billion, it has total expense fee of 0.54%. The fund sponsor is Nuveen Fund Advisors. This tax free fund has a high yield of 4.34%.

Top Vanguard Mutual Funds 2015

Vanguard is one of the largest mutual fund companies. Vanguard is known as the leader in low cost index fund including mutual funds, and exchange traded funds (ETFs). Vanguard provides variety of selection for investor in 401k account.

We review rankings from Morningstar, Lipper, Zacks, TheStreet.com, U.S. News, and Standard & Poor’s. You can learn from our methodology from variety of our previous articles.

Best Vanguard Funds

You can find these best Vanguard funds for different sectors such as U.S. stock fund, international stock fund, municipal bond fund, balanced fund, target date fund, taxable bond fund. Depend on your risk tolerance, you may pick and choose from this top funds list.

Top Vanguard Mutual Funds for 2015 are:

1. Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFINX)
2. Vanguard Balanced Index Fund (VBINX)
3. Vanguard CA Intermediate-Term Tax-Exempt Fund (VCAIX)
4. Vanguard Capital Opportunity Fund (VHCOX)
5. Vanguard Convertible Securities Fund (VCVSX)
6. Vanguard Energy Fund (VGENX)
7. Vanguard Equity-Income Fund (VEIPX)
8. Vanguard Explorer Fund (VEXPX)
9. Vanguard Explorer Value Fund (VEVFX)
10. Vanguard Global Equity Fund (VHGEX)

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM)

iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) is a popular exchange traded fund. This equity fund invests most of its assets in emerging markets, especially in stocks of large and mid-sized companies.

The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF objective is to provide long term growth. Emerging markets countries may include China, Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, India, South Africa, Indonesia, Russia, etc.

EEM Fund Details

• Fund Inception Date: 04/07/2003
• Ticker Symbol: EEM
• CUSIP: 464287234
• Rank in category (YTD): 57%
• Category: Diversified Emerging Markets
• Yield: 1.66%
• Capital Gains: -
• Expense Ratio: 0.72%
• Total Assets: $ 31.41 billion
• Annual Turnover Rate: 22%

Updated May 2017

This equity ETF provide convenient access to 800+ emerging market stocks. The expense fee is 0.67%. The current share value is $41.76. The dividend yield is 1.67%.