Templeton Foreign Fund Class A (TEMFX) is a mutual fund managed by Franklin Templeton Investments, operated out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and incepted in the 1982 as an international equity fund. The fund has over $5 billion dollars in assets and mostly invests, i.e. over 95%, in the stock of large European and Asian information technology, telecommunications, financial services, energy, pharmaceutical and other firms.
Fund, performance and risk
This fund has never been ranked higher than 3 stars by the Morningstar rating system. Nevertheless, a 3 star rating from Morningstar qualifies as above average according to the company. Approximately 350 competing mutual funds exist for the Templeton foreign class A fund (finance.yahoo.com) and the fund has returned an average return of 9.88% after sales charges since its beginning (franklintempleton.com) The fund has an annual dividend of .315 cents per share in addition to any accumulated capital appreciation as of the creation of this review. This dividend is the second highest of all 5 classes of the Templeton Foreign Fund series.
For the most part, the Templeton Foreign Fund Class A has outperformed funds in the same category for a number of years according to yahoo finance. Almost two thirds of the years in which the fund has existed have been gainful for the fund with the remainder of the years incurring annual capital depreciation. (finance.yahoo.com) The fund has experienced both double digit return losses and gains in various years of its performance and has tended to follow/correlate overall market performance.
Cost and fee structure
The Templeton Foreign Class A fund has a different fee structure than class B. The fund has a front-end load fee of 5.75% and an expense ratio of 1.14% of investment worth. (Morningstar.com) The combined 1st year fee would consequently be 6.89% of the investment with subsequent years being closer to the 1.14% management and operational fees. The minimum investment for this fund is $1000.00 with lower required amounts for Individual Retirement Accounts and ‘Annual Incentive Plan Accounts’ (Morningstar.com)
Managment
As of the date of this article, the Templeton Foreign Fund, Class A was managed by 3 professional chartered financial analysts named Tucker Scott, Lisa Myers and Cynthia L. Sweeting, all of who have been employed by Templeton Global Advisors Limited since 1996 or 1997. According to the 2008 annual report of the Templeton mutual fund, the fund seeks value in its investments in relation to their estimated/projected long-term performance. These managers were selected by the parent company of the fund for their capacity to operate and maintain foreign funds.
Summary
For investors seeking a diversified, moderate risk, mutual fund investment with long term returns of close to 10%, the Templeton Foreign Fund Class A may be worth considering. The company in which the fund is managed is a long-standing and reputable financial services firm with a track record consisting of multiple mutual funds for investors. Consultation with a financial advisor, planner, accountant or Franklin-Templeton representative may assist with the decision to purchase shares in the Templeton Foreign Fund Class A. Since financial plans, age, risk tolerance, investment goals and other factors vary between investors, deciding whether or not the Templeton Foreign Fund Class A is the right fund to invest may be both a personal and informed financial decision.
Sources:
1. https://www.franklintempleton.com/retail/jsp_app/products/fund_facts.jsp?fundNumber=104
2. https://www.franklintempleton.com/share/pdf/products/semi_ann/annual/104s.pdf
3. http://quicktake.morningstar.com/FundNet/Snapshot.aspx?Country=USA&Symbol=TEMFX
4. http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=TEMFX