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3 Strong Buy Mid-Cap Growth Mutual Funds
Mid-cap funds are an ideal investment option for investors looking for high return potential that comes with lower risk than their small-cap counterparts. Mid-cap funds are not very susceptible to volatility in broader markets, making it an ideal bet given that the macroeconomic conditions have generally offered a roller-coaster ride in recent years. Meanwhile, when capital appreciation over the long term takes precedence over dividend payouts, growth funds become a natural choice for investors. These funds focus on realizing an appreciable amount of capital growth by investing in stocks of firms whose value is projected to rise over the long term. However, a relatively higher tolerance to risk and the willingness to park funds for the longer term are necessary when investing in these securities. This is because they may experience relatively more fluctuations than other fund classes. Below we share with you three top-rated mid-cap growth mutual funds. Each has earned a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and we expect the funds to outperform their peers in the future. Columbia Mid Cap Growth A (MUTF: CBSAX ) seeks capital appreciation. CBSAX invests a major portion of its assets in companies that have market capitalizations in the range of the companies listed in the Russell Midcap Index. CBSAX invests in stocks that have the potential for long term, above-average earnings growth. The Columbia Mid Cap Growth A fund has a three-year annualized return of 9.5%. CBSAX has an expense ratio of 1.19% as compared to the category average of 1.28%. T. Rowe Price Mid-Cap Growth (MUTF: RPMGX ) maintains a diversified portfolio by investing a large chunk of its assets in companies having market capitalizations similar to those listed in the S&P MidCap 400 Index or the Russell Midcap Growth Index. RPMGX invests in companies having above-average growth potential. Though RPMGX focuses on acquiring common stocks of domestic companies, RPMGX may also invest in companies located outside the U.S. The T. Rowe Price Mid-Cap Growth fund has a three-year annualized return of 13.4%. Brian W.H. Berghuis is the fund manager of RPMGX since 1992. MFS Mid Cap Growth Fund A (MUTF: OTCAX ) seeks growth of capital. A large chunk of OTCAX’s assets is invested in issuers having medium market capitalization. These issuers have a market cap identical to the ones listed in the Russell Midcap Growth Index for the previous 13 months. The MFS Mid Cap Growth A fund has a three-year annualized return of 11.1%. As of February 2016, OTCAX held 103 issues with 2.59% of its assets invested in Ross Stores Inc. (NASDAQ: ROST ). Original Post
Micron Stockpiles After ‘Big Cheese’ Samsung Reportedly Cuts Orders
Micron Technology ( MU ) supplier FormFactor ( FORM ) cut its Q1 guidance Tuesday, indicating that key rival Samsung might curtail production amid a memory-chip glut, Summit Research analyst Srini Sundararajan said Thursday. Wall Street largely blames Samsung for inundating the DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) market, thereby forcing prices to plunge. Late Wednesday, Micron acknowledged the 10% sequential drop in DRAM prices hit its fiscal Q2 top line. For its fiscal Q2, which ended March 3, Micron reported $2.93 billion in sales, down 30% year over year, and a five-cent per-share loss ex items vs. 81 cents earnings per share minus items in the year-earlier quarter. Sales missed expectations for $3.05 billion, but the bottom line topped analysts’ model for an eight-cent per-share loss minus items. Micron’s current-quarter guidance for $2.8 billion to $3.1 billion and a per-share loss ex items of 5-12 cents lagged the consensus of 33 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. The consensus modeled $3.2 billion and five cents earnings per share ex items. At the midpoint of guidance, sales would fall 23%. In the year-earlier quarter, Micron earned 53 cents per share. As of early afternoon on the stock market today , Micron stock was down about 3%, trading just above 10. At least seven analysts cut their price targets Thursday on Micron stock. At least two downgraded Micron stock. Missed Qualification Pressures Costs Mobile wasn’t Micron’s saving grace in Q2, Pacific Crest analyst Monika Garg wrote in a research report. Garg cut her price target on Micron stock to 13 from 18 but reiterated an overweight rating. During Q2, mobile sales pulled in $503 million, down 40% sequentially, as Micron missed a key qualification, leading to extra inventory on the sheet. Now, Micron says, it will hold more inventory and maintain full utilization. August and November are likely to be seasonally stronger, Micron says. But “this likely does not sit well with memory investors who are concerned about potential oversupply,” MKM analyst Ian Ing wrote in a report. Cowen analyst Timothy Arcuri agreed. Micron was supposed to reach cost reductions in May on its 20-nanometer DRAM build, he wrote in a report. The qualification miss hurt those reductions. “Average sales price declines are still more than offsetting these declines,” he wrote in a report. “There is likely to be at least one more good cost-down DRAM quarter from 20-nm in (August), but the inventory build threatens any material recovery in (pricing).” Arcuri cut his price target on Micron stock to 13 from 20, “throwing in the towel” on any big stock move back to 20. He maintained his outperform rating. Credit Suisse analyst John Pitzer says that Micron is likely building inventory to better its cost disadvantage vs. peers like Samsung and SK Hynix. Pitzer reiterated an outperform rating and 20 price target on Micron stock. Ing rates Micron stock a buy and has a 19 price target. Can Micron Gain On Samsung? The memory oversupply led to a 9% and 10% sequential decline in Micron’s DRAM shipments and pricing. Nand (flash memory) saw respective declines of 11% and 15% quarter over quarter. Pricing will better in Q3 and Q4, Ing wrote. For DRAM, he expects sequential declines of 10% and 8%, and he models 10% and 7% declines in Nand pricing over the next two quarters. Ing sees Micron gaining share vs. Samsung on better gross margins, but Macquarie analyst Deepon Nag says that Samsung will win on its weighty pricing pressure. Nag cut his price target to 12 from 14 and downgraded Micron stock to neutral from an outperform rating. Summit Research’s Sundararajan reiterated both a 14 price target and a buy rating on Micron stock, noting that Micron will likely start making profits in November on capital expenditure cuts by key rivals and 20-nm-related cost reductions. FormFactor, which supplies probe cards for Micron, Intel ( INTC ), Samsung and SK Hynix, said Tuesday that it couldn’t meet DRAM demand from one customer and that other vendors had pushed orders out another quarter. The guidance cut indicates depressed DRAM demand. To that point, Apple ( AAPL ) cut the DRAM in its new iPad Pro vs. the first iteration. “Heavy curtailment by the big cheese (Samsung) is already underway,” Sundararajan wrote in a report. “With such brakes being cut, clearly, the DRAM makers have gotten religion.”