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Is T. Rowe Price Emerging Markets Stock (PRMSX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

On the lookout for a Mutual Fund Equity Report fund? Starting with T. Rowe Price Emerging Markets Stock (PRMSX) should not be a possibility at this time. PRMSX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 5 (Strong Sell), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

PRMSX is a part of the T. Rowe Price family of funds, a company based out of Baltimore, MD. Since T. Rowe Price Emerging Markets Stock made its debut in March of 1995, PRMSX has garnered more than $1.88 billion in assets. Eric Moffett is the fund's current manager and has held that role since April of 2021.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of -3.3%, and is in the bottom third among its category peers. If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3-year annualized total return of -3.5%, which places it in the bottom third during this time-frame.

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When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. The standard deviation of PRMSX over the past three years is 22.41% compared to the category average of 18.89%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 20.07% compared to the category average of 16.65%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors should not forget about beta, an important way to measure a mutual fund's risk compared to the market as a whole. PRMSX has a 5-year beta of 0.73, which means it is likely to be less volatile than the market average. Because alpha represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which is the S&P 500 in this case, one should pay attention to this metric as well. The fund has produced a negative alpha over the past 5 years of -9.4, which shows that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

Expenses

For investors, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is key, since costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing. Competition is heating up in this space, and a lower cost product will likely outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, all things being equal. In terms of fees, PRMSX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.20% compared to the category average of 1.13%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, PRMSX is actually more expensive than its peers.

Investors should also note, that according to our data, the fund does not have any minimum investment requirements.

Bottom Line

Overall, T. Rowe Price Emerging Markets Stock ( PRMSX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, average downside risk, and higher fees, this fund looks like a somewhat weak choice for investors right now.

For additional information on the Mutual Fund Equity Report area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into PRMSX too for additional information. Want to learn even more? We have a full suite of tools on stocks that you can use to find the best choices for your portfolio too, no matter what kind of investor you are.

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