What is the average price per share for the Growth Fund of America,
Class A, of the American Funds Group of mutual funds, for each year
between 1982 and 2002 inclusive?

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Request for Question Clarification by ragingacademic-ga on 11 Mar 2003 10:07 PST

pap5 -

Thanks for your question.

I'd be glad to calculate the annual prices, but it would take about
three hours to compile the information.

Please consider increasing the price of the question accordingly.

thanks,
ragingacademic

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Clarification of Question by pap5-ga on 11 Mar 2003 16:30 PST

Can go to $35 if I can have answer by 5:30 pm 3/12.

pap5,

I was able to get the information in time for your deadline (It did
not take too long as this is something I do on a regular basis), so I
decided to jump in here and give you the information you were looking
for.

First off, according to Morningstar :

http://quicktake.morningstar.com/Fund/snapshot.asp?Country=USA&Symbol=AMRAX

the American Growth fund class A has only been around since March 1,
1996. So that is as far back as the share pricing goes. (I checked
this against some proprietary databases to confirm that I was not
missing anything and its inception date is indeed mid '96). In fact
pricing information for the class A stock is not available until mid
august once this class of fund stock was first publicly traded.
However the class D stocks go back to 1956, so I am not sure if that
is what you are looking for. I will do both.

So for AMRAX (class A) I will give you the average share price for
1996-2002 and an average over that period, as you requested. For AMRGX
(class D) I will give you the statistics for the full 1982-2002
period.

It also appears that the fund had a change in ticker in september of
1988, so daily price information is not available prior to 09/01/88
for AMRGX. However I have monthly figures which I will use instead and
weight accordingly.

The best place I have found for free historical quotes is Business
Week. To get historical quotes, you first find the ticker then type it
into the stock quote box on the front page of businessweek.com. From
there you are given current information. On the left you can select
historical quotes and enter a timeframe over which you need historical
data.

American Funds' American Growth Class A historical quotes can be found
at:

http://host.businessweek.com/businessweek/Historical_Quotes.html?Symbol=AMRAX&StartDate=01%2F01%2F82&EndDate=12%2F31%2F03&Type=0&Format=0&Button=Get+Quotes
http://host.businessweek.com/businessweek/Historical_Quotes.html?Symbol=AMRGX&StartDate=01%2F01%2F82&EndDate=12%2F31%2F03&Type=0&Format=0&Button=Get+Quotes

For copyright reasons I won't paste the whole table here, but it
begins :

AMRAX (Class A) Daily Prices
Date Open High Low Close Volume
08/19/96   5.926 5.926 5.926  
08/20/96   5.952 5.952 5.952  
08/21/96   5.939 5.939 5.939  
08/22/96   5.959 5.959 5.959  
08/23/96   5.946 5.946 5.946  
08/26/96   5.934 5.934 5.934  



You may find that business week restricts the total number of prices
that it returns - in which case you need to select shorter timespans.

I was able to select the text of the tables, copy it and then paste it
into excel. I then discarded the Open, High, Low and Volume columns.

Finally I did the following statistical analyses of the results -
figuring that while I was calculating the average (mean) stock price I
could give you a few extra statistics for your money!

AMRAX (Class A) Stock Price:
Number of daily observations   1607
Average (Mean) price           5.9307
Minimum close price            1.66 (10/09/02)
Maximum close price            8.43 (12/10/99)
Standard deviation of prices   1.93

AMRAX (Class A) Daily Returns:
Number of daily observations   1606
Average daily return           -0.041%
Largest single day drop        -21.084% (12/18/00)                  
Largest single day gain        18.204% (12/15/00)
Standard deviation of returns  2.195%

AMRGX (Class D/General) Stock Price:
Number of daily observations   5275
Average (Mean) price           5.837
Minimum close price            1.69 (10/09/02)
Maximum close price            9.83 (Sep 87)
Standard deviation of prices   1.867

AMRGX (Class D/General) Daily Returns:
Number of daily observations   1606
Average daily return           -0.041%
Largest single day drop        -20.921% (12/18/00)                  
Largest single day gain        18.038% (12/15/00)
Standard deviation of returns  1.555%

So the direct answer to your question was either 5.9307 or 5.837
depending on which class you meant. I hope you enjoy the "value added"
statistics that I provided. Let me know if you have any questions.

Regards

calebu2-ga

Search Strategy:
Within Morningstar.com : American Growth
Within Businessweek.com : AMRAX AMRGX

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Clarification of Answer by calebu2-ga on 12 Mar 2003 07:30 PST

One minor mistake. the final statistical table should read :

AMRGX (Class D/General) Daily Returns: 
Number of daily observations   3607 
Average daily return           0.010% 
Largest single day drop        -20.921% (12/18/00)                   
Largest single day gain        18.038% (12/15/00) 
Standard deviation of returns  1.555%

I forgot to update the # of daily observations and the average daily
return when I redid the table for the class D stock.

Regards

calebu2-ga

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Clarification of Answer by calebu2-ga on 12 Mar 2003 09:18 PST

Thanks sldreamer,

It looks like I have quoted the wrong fund - the fund I quotes was the
American Growth Fund, the fund you were looking for was the Growth
fund of America (which Morningstar Principia actually calls Amer Funds
Growth Fund A)

Anyway, here is the businessweek link to that data :
http://host.businessweek.com/businessweek/Historical_Quotes.html?Symbol=AGTHX&StartDate=01%2F01%2F82&EndDate=12%2F31%2F02&Type=0&Format=0&Button=Get+Quote

And below is the statistical analysis (No directly comparable data was
available prior to 1988 - the historical monthly prices I have for
AGTHX are around 17 in August of 1988, compared with 3 that
businessweek reports).

AGTHX (Class A) Stock Price: 
Number of daily observations   3615 
Average (Mean) price           11.988 
Minimum close price            3.18 (11/21/88) 
Maximum close price            31.217 (09/01/00) 
Standard deviation of prices   7.83
  
AGTHX (Class A) Daily Returns: 
Number of daily observations   3614 
Average daily return           0.054% 
Largest single day drop        -6.951% (10/27/97)       
Largest single day gain        6.098% (11/29/02) 
Standard deviation of returns  1.066%

So the answer to your question (I hope!) is 11.988

Apologies for the slip-up. You've got the same analysis for 3 funds
for the price of one! :)

regards

calebu2-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by pap5-ga on 12 Mar 2003 15:09 PST

calebu2 -- Are we talking about the same fund?  The one I asked about
goes by the name Growth Fund of America (GwthA), not American Growth. 
It belongs to the American Funds Group.

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Clarification of Answer by calebu2-ga on 12 Mar 2003 15:36 PST

Based on sldreamer's comment and my subsequent research, I believe
that the information you want is provided in my second clarification -
AGTHX. Apologies for the misunderstanding in the my initial response -
there is no way to edit an answer once it has been posted - only to
provide clarification, which I hope i have done sufficiently.

Regards

calebu2-ga

calebu2,

I think you found the wrong mutual fund.  pap5 is looking for a fund
by American Funds.  Specifically, he is looking for their 'Growth Fund
of America' fund (Class A shares).  According to the fund details page
on the American Funds web site, its ticker symbol is AGTHX, and it has
been around since December 1, 1973:
http://www.americanfunds.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=afweb/shareholder/fund/fundDetail/body&fundNumber=5&title=The+Growth+Fund+of+America+-+Class+A

Here is the fund's prospectus, which provides various information on
the fund, including its historical performance, fees and expenses,
investment strategies and risks, main holdings, and management team:
http://www.americanfunds.com/pdf/shareholder/gfa-010_gfap.pdf

The fund details page also lets you obtain the historical prices for
any month, but it provides the prices in a format that is not easy to
paste in here.  For example, here are the share prices for January
1982:
http://www.americanfunds.com/servlet/ContentServer?month=1&year=1982&pagename=afweb%2Fshareholder%2Ffund%2FhistoricalPrices&fund_num=5&x=10&y=16

Strangely, some of the other financial web sites, such as Yahoo
Finance and the BusinessWeek site you posted, do not offer all of the
historical prices for this fund.  Yahoo Finance only goes back to
1993, and BusinessWeek only goes back to 1988.

BigCharts, however, does have historical quotes going all the way back
to the start of the fund.  You have to enter one day at a time,
though.  Here is the closing price for Monday, December 3, 1973:
http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/historical/default.asp?detect=1&symbol=agthx&close_date=12%2F3%2F73&x=31&y=22


Regards,
sldreamer