Fund Evaluator:

Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt Overview

Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt (RYSEX) is an actively managed U.S. Equity Small Value fund. Royce Investment Partners launched the fund in 1998.

The investment seeks long-term growth of capital. The fund's investment adviser invests the fund's assets primarily in equity securities of small-cap companies. The fund invests at least 80% of its net assets in equity securities of small-cap companies, under normal circumstances. Although the fund normally focuses on securities of U.S. companies, it may invest up to 10% of its net assets (measured at the time of investment) in securities of companies headquartered in foreign countries.

About Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt (RYSEX)

There are 3 members of the management team with an average tenure of 14.29 years: Steven McBoyle (2014), Charles Dreifus (1998), Tim Hipskind (2024). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: Russell 3000 TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and Russell 2000 Value TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt has 31 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 49.0% 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.

Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the U.S. Equity fund group. Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt has 0.0% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 74.5%. 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). Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt has 25.5% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $373 million in total assets, which is below the $393 million average for the Small Value 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.

RYSEX 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 Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Small Value category. Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt has an expense ratio of 1.24%, which is 7% 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. Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt has a portfolio turnover rate of 12%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.1 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 129% for the Small Value category.

Recently, in the month of September 2026, Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt returned -4.2%, which earned it a grade of A, as the Small Value category had an average return of -5.5%. 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.

Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt has a trailing yield of 1.87%, which is above the 0.82% category average. The fund normally distributes its income annually and its capital gains 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.

Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 22.3%, 9.2 percentage points better than the category, which translates into a grade of A. The fund has returned 23.9% over the past year (grade of A), 12.4% over the past three years (grade of D) and 8.4% per year over the past five years (grade of B) and 8.6% per year over the past 10 years (grade of C).

Additional Fund Information

Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt is open to new investors. Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt is part of the Inv share class. The minimum initial purchase is $2,000 if purchased directly from Royce Investment Partners.

The fund has a maximum front-end load of 0.00% and maximum deferred sales charge of 0.00%.

Redemption fees are paid to the fund for selling your shares or switching funds and often are reduced or eliminated over time. Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt has a maximum redemption charge of 0.00%.

Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt does not have a 12b-1 fee. This fee is paid out of assets to cover the costs of marketing and selling fund shares as well as to cover the costs of providing shareholder services. The 12b-1 fee is reflected in the expense ratio.

The fund meets the classification of being considered a True No-Load fund.

Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt Risk

A basic investment concept is that risk should be rewarded. Standard deviation measures the degree of variation in return experienced relative to the average return for a fund. It notes the recent volatility of the fund but does not explain the elements impacting the volatility. For example, portfolio concentration or exposure to foreign investments can impact the volatility and should be examined to gain an understanding of the fund.

The total risk index relates the volatility of the fund to the volatility of all funds. It can help you understand the volatility of a fund across all categories. Ratios above 1.00 indicate higher risk than average. Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt has a above average total risk index of 1.22 because of its standard deviation of 14.7%.

The category risk index relates the volatility of a fund to the average volatility for funds in the same investment category. Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt has low category risk of 0.82, giving it a category risk grade of A. Letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon these relative rankings.

Beta is a risk measure that relates the fund’s volatility of returns to that of the market. The higher the beta of a fund, the higher the market risk of the fund. Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt has a beta of 0.68 indicating that it is 0.32% less volatile than the S&P 500. R-squared indicates what percentage of the return is explained by the market. Royce Small-Cap Special Equity Invmt has an R-squared value of 33%, indicating that 33% of the fund’s return is explained by the return of the S&P 500.