On the lookout for a Mid Cap Growth fund? Starting with Baron Asset Fund Retail (BARAX) should not be a possibility at this time. BARAX holds a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 5 (Strong Sell), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

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We note that BARAX is a Mid Cap Growth fund, and this area is also loaded with many different options. Companies are usually considered growth stocks when they consistently report notable sales and/or earnings growth. Thus, Mid Cap Growth funds pick stocks–usually companies with a market cap between $2 billion and $10 billion–that demonstrate extensive growth opportunities for investors compared to their peers.

Baron is based in New York, NY, and is the manager of BARAX. The Baron Asset Fund Retail made its debut in June of 1987 and BARAX has managed to accumulate roughly $2.26 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund’s current manager, Andrew Peck, has been in charge of the fund since July of 2003.

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. BARAX has a 5-year annualized total return of 8.22% and it sits in the bottom third among its category peers. But if you are looking for a shorter time frame, it is also worth looking at its 3-year annualized total return of 1.48%, which places it in the middle third during this time-frame.

It is important to note that the product’s returns may not reflect all its expenses. Any fees not reflected would lower the returns. Total returns do not reflect the fund’s [%] sale charge. If sales charges were included, total returns would have been lower.

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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. BARAX’s standard deviation over the past three years is 20.61% compared to the category average of 16.64%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund’s standard deviation is 20.71% compared to the category average of 17.61%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

With a 5-year beta of 1.05, the fund is likely to be more volatile than the market average. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio’s performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. BARAX has generated a negative alpha over the past five years of -6.74, demonstrating that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

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