PRGTX: Superb Performance From This Best Of Breed Fund

By | November 10, 2015

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Summary PRGTX has consistently ranked #1 in its category for the last 10 years. Relatively low expense ratio along with excellent stock picking. New manager Joshua Spencer has done a great job since assuming responsibility in 2012. Overall Objective and Strategy: Growth and Income The T. Rowe Price Global Technology Fund (MUTF: PRGTX ) invests at least 80% of net assets in global companies that are expected to generate a majority of their revenues from the development, advancement, and use of technology. They focus on leading global technology companies. The fund normally seeks to invest in at least 5 countries and allocate 25% of the fund’s investments to stocks of companies outside the U.S. The fund pursues long-term capital growth by investing in foreign and US companies that are expected to benefit from rapid advances in technology. Less diversified than a non-focused fund, so it has substantial reward potential coupled with significant risk. Foreign holdings can be affected by declining local currencies or adverse political or economic events. Fund Expenses The expense ratio for PRGTX is 0.91% which is below average for an actively managed sector fund. Morningstar has computed the average expense ratio of similar funds to be 1.49%, so you pick up about 60 basis points of relative outperformance through lower expenses alone. Minimum Investment PRGTX has a minimum initial investment of $2,500 (only $1,000 for IRA accounts). Past Performance PRGTX is classified by Morningstar in the “Specialty Technology” or ST category. Compared with other mutual funds in this category, PRGTX has performed extremely well, largely because of its lower expenses and outstanding stock selection. For all time periods over the last ten years it has achieved “best of breed” performance. These are the long-term annual performance figures computed by Morningstar. The one-year and three year performance has been excellent and was produced by the newest portfolio manager- Joshua K. Spencer who started in June 2012. PRGTX Category (NYSE: ST ) +/- Category Percentile Rank in Category YTD +21.51% +7.52% +0.63% 1 1 Year +23.42% +10.35% +2.66% 1 3 Year +29.37% +18.76% +0.43% 1 5 Year +21.13% +11.83% +0.97% 1 10 Year +14.78% +9.01% +2.17% 1 15 Year +6.07% +1.49% +1.10% 14 Source: Morningstar Mutual Fund Ratings Lipper Ranking : Funds are ranked based on total return within a universe of funds with similar investment objectives. The Lipper peer group is Global Science and Technology. 1 Yr#1 out of 47 funds 5 Yr#1 out of 39 funds 10 Yr#1 out of 19 funds Morningstar Rating : Overall 5 Stars (out of 196 funds) 3 Yr5 Stars(out of 196 funds) 5 Yr5 Stars (out of 195 funds) 10 Yr5 Stars (out of 153 funds) Fund Management The fund has been managed by Joshua K. Spencer since June 2012. Spencer has a BA in Economics from John Hopkins, and an MA Economics and an MBA from the University of Chicago in 2000. He began his career as a research analyst at Fidelity and moved to T Rowe Price in 2004. Volatility Measures Beta: 1.02 R Squared: 0.59 Sharpe Ratio: 1.68 Standard Deviation: 12.75 PRGTX is a concentrated fund and is not an index hugger. It has $2 billion in assets invested in 59 securities. These are the top ten holdings as of September 30, 2015: Top 10 Holdings % Weight Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) 11.21% Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA ) 5.43% LinkedIn Corp Class A (NYSE: LNKD ) 5.19% Ctrip Intl. Ltd. ADR (NASDAQ: CTRP ) 5.18% Tencent Holdings Ltd. ( OTCPK:TCEHY ) 4.95% Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT ) 4.89% JD.com Inc ADR (NASDAQ: JD ) 4.86% Liberty Global PLC Class C (NASDAQ: LBTYA ) 4.67% Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ: PCLN ) 4.25% NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ: NXPI ) 4.15% Comments PRGTX has an outstanding record and is a great way to add technology exposure to a portfolio. Since 2005, it has had only one losing year in 2008. But it held up relatively well compared to the competition losing 44.02% versus a 45.33% loss for its category peers. The fund generally pays out year-end distributions in mid-December. Last year, it paid out $3.29 a share on 12/16/2014 ($1.27 long-term capital gain, $2.02 short-term capital gain), and it will likely pay out large distributions again this year. If you purchase PRGTX in an IRA account, there is no problem, but if you buy it in a taxable account it may pay to wait until after the distributions are paid out for 2015. These are the relevant dates: Declaration/Record Date December 15, 2015 Ex-Dividend Date December 16, 2015 Payment Date December 17, 2015 Scalper1 News

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