As I wrote in my first blog, Pax World was the first Socially Responsible Investment [SRI] Mutual Fund - and the first financial venture to introduce this new concept to the world of investing. Dr. Luther Tyson and the late Dr. Elliott “Jack” Corbett of the United Methodist Church in Washington DC founded the fund in 1971 and named it “Pax” World to show that it would not invest in war-related industries.
The Pax World Balanced Fund, as its now called, also introduced the first social screens against tobacco, alcohol, and gambling. In October of 2006 Pax was compelled to change its stance a bit, and move away from a “zero tolerance “ position when two of their holdings [Starbucks, who agreed to introduce a coffee liqueur with Jim Beam and Yahoo! who was found to allow a bit of online gambling] no longer fit their SRI screens. Pax had to sell its holdings in each of these stocks, but since these activities amounted to a very small fraction of the business of each of these companies, Pax amended its own rules.
I have owned some Pax World stock for over 15 years and found it to be rather conservative, but solid in a down market. It is a No-Load fund [no sales charge] and will accept just $250 as a minimum investment, so it would be a bargain for the conservative part of your portfolio. Although its been around for a while, only four more funds have been added to the Pax World Mutual Fund family: the Growth Fund-1997, the High Yield Fund-1999, the new Value Fund-2007, and the Women’s Equity Fund [created in 1993 to advance the social and economic status of women in the workplace through the collective power of individual and institutional investors.] just acquired by Pax in October 2007. Pax Funds is the second largest SRI fund family.
Morningstar rates these funds: Balanced****, High Yield***, Womens Equity***, Growth**, Value NR [Top =5 stars, lowest = 1 star]. In comparision to other SRI funds, Pax funds rate above average for their respective mutual fund categories.
In looking at the top ten holdings for each portfolio, no red flags present themselves. Some of the largest holdings are: Cisco Systems Inc, CVS Caremark Corp, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, BP, Whiting Petroleum Corp, and Nokia. Its a peaceful fund group.
