The anatomy of our Fund Reports - Part 1

See how our Fund Reports can support your investment decisions

Jon Wild, 2 March, 2009 | 3:17PM
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To help you understand some of the huge amounts of data available on funds, over the next couple of weeks we will take a closer look at the information available in a Morningstar Fund Report, such as the Fund Report for Old Mutual UK Select Mid Cp Acc.

Overview tab

The overview page gives a snapshot of the detailed data contained within the other pages of the fact sheet.

Where appropriate, links have been added so that you can see the definitions of certain data items.

Performance history

The chart shows what would have happened to an initial investment of £1,000 had it been invested in the fund, plotted against the average performance of all the funds in the relevant

Morningstar category as well as the performance of the appropriate index for that Morningstar category.

Below the chart, you can find the percentage returns for the fund, its category and the index broken down into calendar years.

Trailing Return

This section gives your chosen fund’s percentage returns over a series of standard time periods, to the date shown.

For periods of more than one year, the returns are shown on an annualised basis. The box also shows the 12 month yield for the fund, where appropriate (see last week’s article to better understand fund yield)

Remember that all performance figures show how a security has performed in the past and in no way indicate how it will perform in the future.

Key Stats

This section gives a brief summary of some of the non-performance data associated with the fund. Follow the links for definitions.

Morningstar Category - This is used throughout the factsheet to compare your chosen fund’s attributes to those of similar funds

IMA Sector - The classification of the fund by the Investment Management Association (the UK trade body for the asset management industry)

ISIN – International Standard Identification Number: a useful identifier when searching for the fund

NAV/Bid – The latest price of the fund on the date shown

Day Change – The change in value of the fund from the previous day

Total Net Assets

Total Expense Ratio

Initial Charge

Exit Charge

Manager Name

Inception date

Benchmarks

Fund Benchmark – The index or combination of indices that the fund has selected for comparative performance measurement

Morningstar Benchmark – The index that is used for a particular Morningstar category

Investment Objective - The fund manager’s stated goal for the money invested.

Portfolio Profile

This section gives a brief overview of the main assets or holdings of the fund, broken down by type (i.e. stock, bond, etc).

For equity funds the holdings are also broken down by the region and sector that the holdings are categorised into.

For bond funds the holdings are broken down according to their credit quality, duration and maturity.

To help you instantly visualise the predominant style of an investment, Morningstar provides Equity Fund Style Boxes and Bond Fund Style Boxes.

You might want to read more about the Style Box methodology.

Next week, we will take a more in-depth look at analyst research, portfolio holdings and risk and return measurements.

The information contained within is for educational and informational purposes ONLY. It is not intended nor should it be considered an invitation or inducement to buy or sell a security or securities noted within nor should it be viewed as a communication intended to persuade or incite you to buy or sell security or securities noted within. Any commentary provided is the opinion of the author and should not be considered a personalised recommendation. The information contained within should not be a person's sole basis for making an investment decision. Please contact your financial professional before making an investment decision.

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