Fund Evaluator:

Virtus Duff & Phelps Real Estate Secs A Overview

Virtus Duff & Phelps Real Estate Secs A (PHRAX) is an actively managed Sector Equity Real Estate fund. Virtus launched the fund in 1995.

The investment seeks capital appreciation and income with approximately equal emphasis. The fund normally invests at least 80% of its assets in publicly-traded REITs and companies that are principally engaged in the real estate industry. It offers exposure to the equity real estate investment trust ("REIT") market utilizing utilizing a quality and relative value style with a fundamental security analysis approach designed to identify the most attractive investment candidates.

About Virtus Duff & Phelps Real Estate Secs A (PHRAX)

There are 2 members of the management team with an average tenure of 23.29 years: Frank Haggerty (2007), Geoffrey Dybas (1998). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: FT Wilshire 5000 TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and FTSE Nareit Equity REITs TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Virtus Duff & Phelps Real Estate Secs A has 33 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 56.7% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

Virtus Duff & Phelps Real Estate Secs A is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the Sector Equity fund group. Virtus Duff & Phelps Real Estate Secs A has 0.0% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 98.4%. There is 0.0% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 0.0% (0.0% domestic bond, 0.0% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). Virtus Duff & Phelps Real Estate Secs A has 1.6% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $92 million in total assets, which is below the $667 million average for the Real Estate category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

PHRAX Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The Virtus Duff & Phelps Real Estate Secs A expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Real Estate category. Virtus Duff & Phelps Real Estate Secs A has an expense ratio of 1.24%, which is 1% higher than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a D. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. Virtus Duff & Phelps Real Estate Secs A has a portfolio turnover rate of 17%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.1 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 78% for the Real Estate category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, Virtus Duff & Phelps Real Estate Secs A returned 2.7%, which earned it a grade of A, as the Real Estate category had an average return of 2.0%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all funds in that category.

Virtus Duff & Phelps Real Estate Secs A has a trailing yield of 1.79%, which is below the 2.02% category average. The fund normally distributes its income quarterly and its capital gains semi-annually.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

Virtus Duff & Phelps Real Estate Secs A Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 20.1%, 3.6 percentage points better than the category, which translates into a grade of A. The fund has returned 22.4% over the past year (grade of A), 11.5% over the past three years (grade of A) and 4.3% per year over the past five years (grade of A) and 6.1% per year over the past 10 years (grade of B).

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