15 important things you should know about American Funds RAFEX mutual fund

Updated: September 18, 2020

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

High expense ratio
Sales load and/or distribution fees

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

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

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

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

Describe AMCAP Fund; Class R-4 Shares (RAFEX).
What are RAFEX holdings?
What is RAFEX performance? What are RAFEX historical returns?
How many up and down years did RAFEX have historically?
What is RAFEX dividend yield?
What is RAFEX minimum initial investment amount?
What is RAFEX expense ratio?
Does RAFEX have any sales loads or 12b-1 distribution expenses?
What is RAFEX tax efficiency (tax-cost ratio)?
What is RAFEX beta? How would you assess RAFEX risk?
What is RAFEX Sharpe ratio?
What is RAFEX Finny Score? RAFEX buy or sell?
What are the pros of investing in RAFEX? What are RAFEX buy reasons?
What are the cons of investing in RAFEX? What are RAFEX sell reasons?

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

Fact Sheet

1. Describe AMCAP Fund; Class R-4 Shares (RAFEX).

The Fund seeks to provide long-term growth of capital. The Fund invests primarily in common stocks of issuers located in the U.S. with a record of above-average long-term growth.

2. What are RAFEX top holdings?

RAFEX has 199 stock holdings and 0 bond holdings.

The top 10 holdings represent 26.53% of total assets. Here are the top holdings:

Name	Symbol	% Assets
Netflix Inc	NFLX	4.25%
Microsoft Corp	MSFT	3.73%
Abbott Laboratories	ABT	3.28%
Facebook Inc A	FB	2.88%
UnitedHealth Group Inc	UNH	2.75%
Amazon.com Inc	AMZN	2.38%
Broadcom Inc	AVGO	2.05%
Gilead Sciences Inc	GILD	1.78%
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc	TMO	1.77%
Amgen Inc	AMGN	1.66%

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

RAFEX has generated the following returns:

1-month return is 1.37%;
3-month return is 8.06%;
1-year return is 20.71%;
3-year return is 13.82%;
5-year return is 13.25%;
10-year return is 14.10%;
15-year return is 9.46%.

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

In the last 10 years, RAFEX had 9 up years and 1 down year. See Performances

5. What is RAFEX dividend yield?

RAFEX yield is 0.48%.

6. What is RAFEX minimum initial investment amount?

RAFEX minimum initial investment amount is N/A.

7. What is RAFEX expense ratio?

RAFEX expense ratio is 0.71%. The expense ratio of a fund is the total percentage of fund assets used for administrative, management, and all other expenses. See Expenses

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

RAFEX 12b-1 distribution fee is 0.25. RAFEX front-end sales load is 0. RAFEX back-end sales load is 0.

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

1-year ax cost ratio is 1.48%;
3-year ax cost ratio is 1.63%.

See Taxes

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

3-year beta is 0.95;
5-year beta is 0.96;
10-year beta is 0.97;
15-year beta is 0.98.

See Risks

11. What is RAFEX Sharpe ratio?

3-year Sharpe ratio is 0.66;
5-year Sharpe ratio is 0.65;
10-year Sharpe ratio is 0.99;
15-year Sharpe ratio is 0.61.

See Risks

Analysis

12. What is Finny Score? buy or sell?

Finny Score is 67. Our quantitative analysis shows 4 reasons to buy and 2 reasons to sell it, resulting in the Finny Score of 67.

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

The following are RAFEX strengths from our perspective:

RAFEX 3-year return is 13.82%, which is higher than the 3-year return of the benchmark index (S&P 500 TR USD), 13.64%.
RAFEX 5-year return is 13.25%, which is in line with the 5-year return of the benchmark index (S&P 500 TR USD), 14.57%.
RAFEX 10-year return is 14.1%, which is in line with the 10-year return of the benchmark index (S&P 500 TR USD), 14.33%.
RAFEX 15-year return is 9.46%, which is higher than the 15-year return of the benchmark index (S&P 500 TR USD), 9.4%.

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

The following are RAFEX weaknesses from our perspective:

RAFEX expense ratio is 0.71%, which is not negligible. Is the fund expensive to you, and does it align to your investment strategy?
Warning: this fund has a 12b1 sales fee. The maximum 12b1 fee is 0.25%. A 12b-1 fee is an annual marketing or distribution fee on a mutual fund.

In the RAFEX review, we covered RAFEX 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.