American Funds - The Investment Company of America - Class A Shares (AIVSX) net a +3 Fund Authority Score

Fund Authority Scores rate mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) on the most important economic factors that influence individual investors’ net long term diversified investment fund performance. The Skilled Investor developed the Fund Authority Score system to provide individual investors with concise and objective summaries of mutual funds and ETFs for comparisons within investment asset classes.

For a directory of the Fund Authority Score reports of other mutual funds and ETFs, go here. When you go to this Fund Authority Score directory, you can easily find a list of all fund reports at the bottom of each article for that particular investment asset class. For more information about how a Fund Authority Score is developed for each mutual fund or ETF, go here.

The diversified investment fund strategy of The Investment Company of America mutual fund (AIVSX)

According to American Funds mutual fund Prospectus for The Investment Company of America, “the fund seeks to make your investment grow and provide you with income over time by investing primarily in common stocks that offer growth and dividend potential.”

At approximately $95 billion in assets with 3.1 million shareholder accounts, The Investment Company of America is a very large actively managed mutual fund. This fund may invest worldwide, however it focuses largely on U.S. equity and debt securities.

According to the statement of its investment limitations and guidelines in its recent 497 filing on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR system, The Investment Company of America “may invest up to 15% of its assets in issuers domiciled outside the United States and not included in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Composite Index.” Given this relatively low non-U.S. stocks limitation, we have classified this mutual fund as a U.S. large capitalization mutual fund rather than as a worldwide stock mutual fund. Recently, 11% of this mutual fund’s portfolio assets were invested in non-U.S. equities.

Recently, bonds constituted 0% of this mutual fund’s portfolio, while cash and cash equivalents accounted for 13% of the portfolio. According to its 497 filing, when American Funds’ The Investment Company of America does invest “in straight debt securities (i.e., not convertible into equity) (they) will generally consist of investment grade securities. The fund may, however, invest up to 5% of its assets in straight debt securities rated Ba or below by Moody’s Investors Service and BB or below by Standard & Poor’s Corporation or unrated but determined to be of equivalent quality.”

The Investment Company of America has a variety of share classes which can only be purchased through an advisor or other financial intermediary - not directly.

The Fund Authority Score for the American Funds’ The Investment Company of America mutual fund - Class A Shares

The table below presents the Fund Authority Score and other information for The Investment Company of America mutual fund.

Using an integer scale ranging from -10 to +10, Fund Authority Scores measure five factors:

1) annualized management and investment sales expenses (40% weighting),
2) annual trading costs implied by investment fund portfolio turnover (30% weighting),
3) inferior and superior historical performance (20% weighting),
4) minimum fund maturity (5% weighting), and
5) minimum fund size for operating efficiency (5% weighting).

Fund Authority Summary for the American Funds - The Investment Company of America - Class A Shares (AIVSX)

NOTES:

– Most mutual funds and ETFs change their fees and trading strategies relatively little over time. Because investment expenses, trading/turnover costs, fund maturity, and operating efficiency account for 80% of the Fund Authority Score rating system, Fund Authority Scores tend to remain relatively stable over time for such consistent investment funds.

– The date in the table above indicates when fund information was accessed from SEC EDGAR filings and/or the fund company website. Normally, data used to develop Fund Authority Scores rely upon reporting periods ending the previous calendar quarter or half year.

– Unless otherwise stated, there are no business arrangements of any kind between The Skilled Investor and any financial product, service, or company that may be discussed in our publication’s articles.

– Fund Authority Scores are developed on a fund by fund basis. Just because a mutual fund or ETF has a high Fund Authority Score does not mean that other funds from that fund family do, as well. On your own, always be careful to check current management expenses, sales loads, portfolio turnover, fund maturity, fund size, fund performance, and other current factors before investing in any diversified investment fund.

– If you do not need and/or are unwilling to pay the direct and indirect costs of an investment counselor, stock broker, or other financial advisory intermediary, you should note that many mutual funds can be purchased directly from diversified investment fund families by accessing their websites or by calling their customer service telephone numbers. Similarly many ETFs can be purchased with lower transactions fees through discount brokers. (See these articles: Payment of Investment Advisors, Financial Planners, and Investment Counselors)

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Related Personal Finance Reading:

Hedge Funds: Investment and Portfolio Strategies for the Institutional Investor

T. Edgar Lyon: A teacher in Zion

The investment performance of mutual funds: An empirical investigation of timing, selectivity, and market efficiency (Working paper series - Center for Research in Security Prices)

Equity Asset Valuation Workbook (Cfa Institute Investment)

Individual Investor's Guide to Low-load Insurance Products

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