The total number of different holdings of a fund. This figure is meant to be a measure of portfolio risk. Specifically, the lower the figure, the more concentrated the fund is in a few companies or issues, and the more the fund is susceptible to the market fluctuations in these few holdings. This figure also provides a context for the importance of % assets in top 10 holdings. The figure is calculated from the most-recent available fund holdings.
Benefits
This number can be quite useful for gaining greater insight into the portfolio’s diversification.
Origin
Morningstar makes every effort to gather the most up-to-date portfolio information from a fund. By law, however, funds need only report this information two times during the calendar year and they have two months after the report date to actually release the shareholder report and portfolio. Therefore, it is possible that a fund’s portfolio could be up to eight months old at the time of publication.