Royce Closes Small-Cap Fund

By Staff Writer

November 03, 2004 at 07:00 PM

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Nov. 2, 2004 — The Royce Fund Low-Priced Stock (RYLPX), which invests in small companies, has been closed to new investors to keep it from getting too big to be manageable.

The fund stopped accepting new investors on Friday. It had about $4.2 billion in assets at that time, according to Royce & Associates, which oversees the fund.

Royce said it shut the fund "in an effort to stabilize" its cash inflows, which it said have been "considerable," because of the recent strong performance of small and micro-cap stocks compared to the overall market.

The fund invests in low-priced shares of companies with markets caps of less than $2.5 billion. Royce defines low-priced stocks as those whose average cost per share in the fund's portfolio will be less than $25.

Royce Low Priced Stock was up 5.4% this year through September, versus 6.7% for the average small-cap value fund. The fund returned 18.5%, on average, for the five years ended in September, versus 14.2% for similar funds. The portfolio is ranked 3 Stars by Standard & Poor's.

Contact Bob Keane with questions or comments at: [email protected].

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