dodgx
Dodge & Cox Reopens Funds
Apparently fund investors are sick and tired of all the scary recession talk and stock market volatility. In recent weeks many closed funds have reopened to new investors amidst a flight of old investors. The latest and perhaps greatest to announce the lock is off the door is Dodge & Cox funds. The value oriented firm will be reopening Dodge & Cox Stock (DODGX) and Balanced (DODBX) funds on Monday:
Dodge & Cox Funds, one of the most popular U.S. mutual fund families, said it will reopen to new investors its flagship Stock fund and its Balanced fund, which invests in stocks and bonds, after performance lagged its peers for the first time in more than a decade.
The $63 billion asset Stock fund and $27.1 billion balanced fund will reopen on Monday. Dodge & Cox had in 2004 stopped accepting money from new investors after assets in the funds had grown too rapidly for it to invest easily. It continued to accept money from existing investors."
Dodge & Cox is losing investors for an unusual reason for this top-performing family, underperformance:
In a statement on Friday, Dodge & Cox said investors have recently been redeeming money from the funds because of weak returns and volatile markets....the Stock fund last year returned 0.1 percent, trailing 61 percent of its 'large-value' peers, while the Balanced fund returned 1.7 percent, lagging 89 percent of its 'moderate allocation' peers. Both funds had outperformed a majority of their peers in every year over the previous decade..."
Investors still love Dodge & Cox International Stock (DODFX) - a good sign this fund and international funds in general will underperform U.S. stock markets going forward.
New Global Dodge & Cox Fund On Horizon
Last Friday Dodge & Cox filed with the SEC to launch a new global stock fund - their first new fund since 2001 when they launched Dodge & Cox International Stock (DODFX).
When investors are able to buy Dodge & Cox Global Stock in about three months, the fund will be more expensive than other Dodge & Cox funds, with a 0.60% management fee and total expenses capped at 0.90%. Currently the other Dodge & Cox funds are in the 0.44% - 0.65% total expense ratio range. We expect the total expense ratio of this new fund to reach around 0.80% in the next couple of years, and ultimately settle at roughly 0.65% once assets take off (which might take a little longer now that the market is weak and other Dodge & Cox funds have reopened). These extra fees in the near term will more than likely be offset by increased performance (relative to other Dodge & Cox funds) due to the benefits of a much smaller asset level (you will notice a low fat fund index on this fund's data page during its formative years). But should you buy? ...read the rest of this article»