15 important things you should know about Alger AGSCX mutual fund

Updated: July 07, 2021

Bull Case

3-year return above the benchmark
5-year return above the benchmark
10-year return above the benchmark
15-year return above the benchmark

Bear Case

Low net assets
High expense ratio
Sales load and/or distribution fees

Before we start: if you’re looking for AGSCX “stock” price, you can quickly find it out by visiting Finny and typing "AGSCX quote". If you’re looking for a quick scoop on AGSCX "stock" (price chart, key stats, buy or sell analysis and holdings), go to Finny and look for "AGSCX". You’ll get all this info in one place.

Are you looking to buy or sell AGSCX? Or perhaps you’re looking for AGSCX fact sheet, and learn about its alternatives? If so, you came to the right place.

In this AGSCX mutual fund review, we’ll address key questions our readers have been asking us about this fund, above and beyond what you can find in its prospectus, and on Morningstar or Yahoo Finance.

Here is what you’ll be able to find in this review:

Fact Sheet: AGSCX performance, returns, expense ratio, holdings and dividend yield;
Analysis: AGSCX buy or sell; the pros and cons of investing in AGSCX mutual fund;
Alternatives: other ETFs and mutual funds you should consider as alternatives to AGSCX.

And here is the list of questions we’ll answer:

Describe Alger Funds: Alger Small Cap Growth Fund; Class C Shares (AGSCX).
What are AGSCX holdings?
What is AGSCX performance? What are AGSCX historical returns?
How many up and down years did AGSCX have historically?
What is AGSCX dividend yield?
What is AGSCX minimum initial investment amount?
What is AGSCX expense ratio?
Does AGSCX have any sales loads or 12b-1 distribution expenses?
What is AGSCX tax efficiency (tax-cost ratio)?
What is AGSCX beta? How would you assess AGSCX risk?
What is AGSCX Sharpe ratio?
What is AGSCX Finny Score? AGSCX buy or sell?
What are the pros of investing in AGSCX? What are AGSCX buy reasons?
What are the cons of investing in AGSCX? What are AGSCX sell reasons?

So let’s start. Scroll down to the question that interests you the most.

Fact Sheet

1. Describe Alger Funds: Alger Small Cap Growth Fund; Class C Shares (AGSCX).

The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing in a diversified, actively managed portfolio of equity securities, primarily of companies with total market capitalization of less than $1 billion. Income is considered in the choice of investments but is not investment objective.

2. What are AGSCX top holdings?

AGSCX has 81 stock holdings and 0 bond holdings.

The top 10 holdings represent 28.08% of total assets. Here are the top holdings:

Name	Symbol	% Assets
Quidel Corp	QDEL	4.61%
Veeva Systems Inc Class A	VEEV	3.99%
Shopify Inc A	SHOP.TO	3.06%
Insulet Corp	PODD	3.05%
Bio-Techne Corp	TECH	2.85%
DexCom Inc	DXCM	2.31%
Avalara Inc	AVLR	2.27%
Tandem Diabetes Care Inc	TNDM	2.09%
Digital Realty Trust Inc	DLR	1.95%
Sunrun Inc	RUN	1.90%

3. What is AGSCX performance? What are AGSCX historical returns?

AGSCX has generated the following returns:

1-month return is 6.71%;
3-month return is 3.54%;
1-year return is 3.54%;
3-year return is 24.28%;
5-year return is 25.52%;
10-year return is 13.75%;
15-year return is 10.95%.

4. How many up and down years did AGSCX have historically?

In the last 10 years, AGSCX had 7 up years and 3 down years.

5. What is AGSCX dividend yield?

AGSCX yield is 0%.

6. What is AGSCX minimum initial investment amount?

AGSCX minimum initial investment amount is $1.00K.

7. What is AGSCX expense ratio?

AGSCX expense ratio is 2.09%. The expense ratio of a fund is the total percentage of fund assets used for administrative, management, and all other expenses.

8. Does AGSCX have any sales loads or 12b-1 distribution expenses?

AGSCX 12b-1 distribution fee is 1. AGSCX front-end sales load is 0. AGSCX back-end sales load is 1.

9. What is AGSCX tax efficiency (tax-cost ratio)?

1-year ax cost ratio is 0.17%;
3-year ax cost ratio is 1.89%.

10. What is AGSCX beta? How would you assess AGSCX risk?

11. What is AGSCX Sharpe ratio?

3-year Sharpe ratio is 0.98;
5-year Sharpe ratio is 1.20;
10-year Sharpe ratio is 0.76;
15-year Sharpe ratio is 0.57.

Analysis

12. What is Finny Score? buy or sell?

Finny Score is 57. Our quantitative analysis shows 4 reasons to buy and 3 reasons to sell it, resulting in the Finny Score of 57.

13. What are the pros of investing in AGSCX? What are AGSCX buy reasons?

The following are AGSCX strengths from our perspective:

AGSCX 3-year return is 24.28%, which is higher than the 3-year return of the benchmark index (Russell 2000 Growth TR USD), 15.5%.
AGSCX 5-year return is 25.52%, which is higher than the 5-year return of the benchmark index (Russell 2000 Growth TR USD), 18.6%.
AGSCX 10-year return is 13.75%, which is higher than the 10-year return of the benchmark index (Russell 2000 Growth TR USD), 13.33%.
AGSCX 15-year return is 10.95%, which is higher than the 15-year return of the benchmark index (Russell 2000 Growth TR USD), 10.87%.

14. What are the cons of investing in AGSCX? What are AGSCX negatives?

The following are AGSCX weaknesses from our perspective:

AGSCX net assets are $38.80 million. This fund is not a popular choice with retail investors.
AGSCX expense ratio is 2.09%, which is not negligible. Is the fund expensive to you, and does it align to your investment strategy?
Warning: this fund has a 12b1 and deferred sales fee. The maximum 12b1 fee is 1%, while the maximum deferred sales load is 1%. A 12b-1 fee is an annual marketing or distribution fee on a mutual fund. Deferred sales load is a back-end sales charge and is imposed when an investor redeems shares.

In the AGSCX review, we covered AGSCX key stats (return, performance, yield, expense ratio, and holdings), buy and sell analysis, and alternative investments. If this review was helpful to you, feel free to check out other mutual fund and ETF reviews.