
The portfolio turnover ratio is important to consider before purchasing a mutual fund or a similar financial instrument, as it affects the investment return of the fund. Generally speaking, a low turnover ratio is desirable over a high turnover ratio.
What does portfolio turnover mean?
Portfolio-turnover meaning Meanings The frequency with which stocks and other investments are bought and sold within a portfolio. A high turnover ratio isn’t usually positive, as it means that the portfolio manager spends a large amount of money on trading commissions.
What is the cost and impact of turnover?
These costs include hiring, onboarding, training, ramp time to peak productivity, the loss of engagement from others due to high turnover, higher business error rates, and general culture impacts.
What are mutual funds turnover rate?
The turnover ratio of a mutual fund is a measurement that expresses the percentage of a particular fund's holdings that have been replaced (turned over) during the previous year. For example, if a mutual fund invests in 100 different stocks, and 50 of them are replaced throughout one year, the turnover ratio would be 50%.
What is mutual fund turnover?
Turnover is a term used to describe how much of a mutual fund’s securities are replaced each and every year. What that means in layman’s terms is how many things will be replaced each year. For example, let’s say a mutual fund has 100 stocks and 30 of them are replaced in one year. The turnover ratio would be 30%.

What does a high portfolio turnover mean?
The higher the turnover rate, the greater the turnover. Higher turnover rates mean increased fund expenses, which can reduce the fund's overall performance. Higher turnover rates can also have negative tax consequences.
Why is a funds turnover rate important?
Turnover ratio is important when evaluating mutual funds or ETFs, because it can tell you a lot about how the fund and the fund manager operate. It can also be helpful for managing investment costs. Funds that have higher turnover ratios, for example, can trigger higher costs for investors.
What is a good turnover rate for investments?
Simply put, on average the more you pay the more you under-perform. These studies reveal that investors should seek out and invest with managers that employ long-term vision, those whose turnover rates are no more than 33% (3).
Why is portfolio investment important?
Importance of an investment portfolio A portfolio with an appropriate (diversified) mix of investments not only helps an individual protect her/his invested capital but also allows them to position it in a way that it has the potential to earn desirable returns.
How do you interpret portfolio turnover?
Interpreting the Portfolio Turnover Ratio For example, a 5% portfolio turnover ratio suggests that 5% of the portfolio holdings changed over a one-year time period. A ratio of 100% or greater indicates that all the securities in the fund were either sold or replaced with other holdings over a one-year period.
Is high turnover ratio good or bad?
Lower turnover ratios often mean lower costs and higher returns. Higher turnover ratios often mean the fund is more actively managed, which leads to higher costs and taxes.
Is a higher turnover ratio better?
The higher the asset turnover ratio, the better the company is performing, since higher ratios imply that the company is generating more revenue per dollar of assets.
Do you want a high or low turnover rate?
A higher turnover rate can reflect higher profitability, while a low turnover rate can reflect lower profitability. A turnover rate that equals 1 or less reflects the company has more inventory than current consumer market demands. A turnover rate that is over 1 shows a company sells products that match market demands.
What does turnover mean in investing?
The turnover ratio or turnover rate is the percentage of a mutual fund or other portfolio's holdings that have been replaced in a given year (calendar year or whichever 12-month period represents the fund's fiscal year).
Why do we need to diversify your portfolio?
It is one way to balance risk and reward in your investment portfolio by diversifying your assets. Diversification is the practice of spreading your investments around so that your exposure to any one type of asset is limited. This practice is designed to help reduce the volatility of your portfolio over time.
What is the primary purpose of portfolio diversification?
The fundamental purpose of portfolio diversification is to minimize the risk on your investments; specifically unsystematic risk. Unsystematic risk—also known as specific risk—is risk that is related to a specific company or market segment. By diversifying your portfolio, this is the risk you hope to cut.
What does fund turnover mean?
Mutual fund turnover is calculated as the value of all transactions (buying, selling) divided by two, then divided by a fund's total holdings. Essentially, mutual fund turnover typically measures the replacement of holdings in a mutual fund and is commonly presented to investors as a percentage over a one year period.
Do you want a high or low turnover rate?
A higher turnover rate can reflect higher profitability, while a low turnover rate can reflect lower profitability. A turnover rate that equals 1 or less reflects the company has more inventory than current consumer market demands. A turnover rate that is over 1 shows a company sells products that match market demands.
What is a good ETF turnover rate?
A turnover ratio of 100% means the ETF or mutual fund has bought and sold all its positions within the last year. A relatively low turnover ratio—20% or 30%—indicates a buy & hold strategy. A high turnover ratio—100%+ -would indicate an investment strategy involving more trading than holding.
Is a low turnover rate good?
When it comes to employee recruitment and retention, turnover is definitely bad for business. Right? Not so fast. While a high employee retention rate is often a top priority, an atypically low turnover rate is a good indicator that there may be underlying issues your organization needs to address.
What is the Portfolio Turnover Ratio?
Every mutual fund manager buys and sells stocks regularly based on his view of future market performance. But, how will we know whether the fund manager changes the portfolio too frequently or does not change very often? The metric that can be used to measure this is the Portfolio Turnover Ratio.
Why is the Portfolio Turnover Ratio important?
It is natural for a fund manager to buy and sell stocks in the portfolio. Based on the opportunity available in the market and to book profit in the portfolio, the fund managers churn the portfolio. If the turnover ratio is 100% or more than that, then it means that the fund manager has completely churned the portfolio over the last year.
When you should not use the Portfolio Turnover Ratio?
For long term equity categories, a Portfolio Turnover Ratio is useful. However, you cannot use this metric for Debt Funds, Index Funds, and Arbitrage Funds. Here’s why. In the case of Debt funds, the fund manager takes a call on underlying securities based on the interest rate movement and credit quality.
What does low turnover mean in portfolio?
Low portfolio turnover means that there were few changes to a portfolio and high turnover means that there were many changes. Portfolio turnover applies to mutual funds (as mentioned in my example) but also applies to managed portfolios and investment services as well as my own investment portfolio.
Why do investors churn their portfolios?
Further, some investors churn their portfolios on purpose in order to raise the cost basis of their holdings as a tax-planning strategy.
Do robo advisors sell ETFs?
Fortunately, robo-advisory portfolios tend to hold commission-free ETFs, largely avoiding trading costs. Tax-loss harvesting involves selling securities at a loss in order to counteract capital gains that may occur due to rebalancing (or other reasons).
Why is portfolio turnover ratio important?
The portfolio turnover ratio is important to consider before purchasing a mutual fund or a similar financial instrument, as it affects the investment return of the fund. Generally speaking, a low turnover ratio is desirable over a high turnover ratio. The rationale is that there are transaction costs.
What is a high turnover fund?
Funds with a high turnover ratio are called actively managed funds. In addition, it is useful to track the ratio on a trended basis. It is done to determine if the fund manager’s investment strategy has changed.
What does low turnover mean?
Generally speaking, a portfolio turnover ratio is considered low when the ratio is 30% or lower. When the turnover ratio is low, it indicates that the fund manager is following a buy-and-hold investment strategy. Funds with a low turnover ratio are called passively managed funds. On the other hand, funds with a high turnover ratio indicate ...
Do funds with a higher portfolio turnover ratio incur capital gains tax?
In addition, funds with a higher portfolio turnover ratio are more likely to incur higher capital gains taxes. Capital Gains Tax Capital gains tax is a tax imposed on capital gains or the profits that an individual makes from selling assets. The tax is only imposed once the asset has been converted into cash, and not when it’s still in the hands ...
Is a high portfolio turnover ratio desirable?
However, it is not to say that a high portfolio turnover ratio is not desirable. A high turnover ratio is justified if the fund manager is able to generate comparatively higher returns (on a risk-adjusted basis) than a similar-style fund with a low turnover ratio. If the ratio is high, and the fund is underperforming its benchmark on ...
What is business turnover?
Also referred to as simply “income” or “ gross revenue ,” business turnover is the complete sum of sales made over a given period. Whereas profit measures overall earnings, turnover measures everything that’s actually coming into your business on the top line before expenses have been deducted.
Why is turnover important?
It could be argued that turnover only tells a part of the story and that net profit is the best way to measure financial success accurately, as it takes into account not only the cost of goods and services but other expenses like tax and administration fees.
What is turnover in business?
Turnover doesn’t just take into account the cost of a product or service (minus any VAT, of course) but any expenses paid for by the customer too, which includes shipping expenses. Turnover should also be calculated before detracting fees or commissions.
How to calculate turnover
As long as your accounting department is keeping precise and accurate records then calculating turnover is as simple as adding together all of your total sales for a given period. Generally, however, turnover is measured by the year.
Which has higher turnover?
Growth funds and funds with more aggressive strategies have higher turnovers. More value-oriented funds tend to have lower turnover. If the fund’s performance is greater than a fund with a lower turnover, the higher rate may be justified. If the turnover rate is high, while the performance is lagging, an investor may be better off looking ...
What happens if you have a higher turnover rate?
Higher turnover rates can also have negative tax consequences. Funds with higher turnover rates are more likely to incur capital gains taxes , which are then distributed to investors. Investors may have to pay taxes on those capital gains. Certain types of mutual funds generally have higher turnover rates.
What is turnover rate in mutual funds?
The turnover rate represents the percentage of the mutual fund’s holdings that changed over the past year. A mutual fund with a high turnover rate increases its costs to its investors. The cost for the turnover is taken from the asset’s funds, as opposed to the management fee. Thus, mutual fund managers may not have very much incentive ...
What does 25% turnover mean?
For example, a fund with a 25% turnover rate holds stocks for four years on average. The higher the turnover rate, the greater the turnover. Higher turnover rates mean increased fund expenses, which can reduce the fund’s overall performance. Higher turnover rates can also have negative tax consequences. Funds with higher turnover rates are more ...

Formula For The Portfolio Turnover Ratio
Interpreting The Portfolio Turnover Ratio
- For example, a 5% portfolio turnover ratio suggests that 5% of the portfolio holdings changed over a one-year time period. A ratio of 100% or greater indicates that all the securities in the fund were either sold or replaced with other holdings over a one-year period. The portfolio turnover ratio is important to consider before purchasing a mutual ...
Portfolio Turnover Ratio and Investment Strategies
- The portfolio turnover ratio provides insight into how a fund managermanages its fund. Generally speaking, a portfolio turnover ratio is considered low when the ratio is 30% or lower. When the turnover ratio is low, it indicates that the fund manager is following a buy-and-hold investment strategy. Funds with a low turnover ratio are called passively managed funds. On the other hand…
Practical Examples
- Example 1: Calculating the Portfolio Turnover Ratio A fund purchased and sold $10 million and $8 million of securities, respectively, over a one-year time period. Over the one-year period, the fund held average net assets of $50 million. What is the fund’s portfolio turnover ratio over the past year? Solution: The portfolio turnover ratio for the fund is calculated as ($8M / $50M) x 100 = 16…
Additional Resources
- Thank you for reading CFI’s guide on Portfolio Turnover Ratio. To help you become a world-class financial analyst and advance your career to your fullest potential, the additional resources will be very helpful: 1. Public Securities 2. Risk-Adjusted Return Ratios 3. Return on Net Assets (RONA) 4. Investing: A Beginner’s Guide