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Gas Utility Index ( GASFX )
Investment Spotlight: Gas Utility Index Fund Manager Skip Aylesworth
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Portfolio Holdings


 
Human Picture
Winsor H. Aylesworth
Portfolio Manager

Prior to joining The FBR Funds in 1998, Winsor "Skip" Aylesworth served as President and Founder of GrandView Advisers, Inc., where he managed two real estate funds including the GrandVIew REIT Index Fund, the nation's first open-end REIT index fund, as well as edited the highly regarded REIT newsletter "The Winsor Report". In addition to his six years as President of GrandView, Skip spent over13 years as a real estate specialist at The Bank of Boston holding various positions including Executive Vice President and Manager of Bank's Connecticut based OREO group, overseeing 400 properties.

Currently, Skip serves as portfolio manager of the FBR Gas Utility Index Fund and co-portfolio manager of The FBR Technology Fund. As portfolio manager, he is responsible for the daily implementation and management of the Gas Utility Index Fund's investment strategy.

Investment Goals
The Fund, an open end no-load mutual fund, seeks current income and long-term capital appreciation.

Fund Strategy
The FBR Gas Utility Index Fund intends to provide investment results that replicate the performance of the American Gas Association Stock Index, an index maintained by the American Gas Association (AGA). The index consists of approximately 72 publicly traded AGA member companies. The Fund is market cap weighted and adjusted for the percentage of natural gas assets on each company’s balance sheet. The index is reset monthly or when conditions warrant such as merger, acquisition, and capital restructuring. The Fund is reset daily based on market activity.



type
  Ratings* as of 3/31/2008
Specialty Utility Overall
3 Year

out of 99 Funds
5 Year

out of 79 Funds
10 Year

out of 54 Funds
The Overall Morningstar Rating for a fund is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its 3-, 5- and 10-yr (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics.
Fund data as of 4/30/2008
Inception: 05/15/1989 Q1
2008
1 Month Average Annual Total Return
1 Year 5 Years 10 Years Since Inception
FBR Gas Utility Index Fund-8.28%-1.05%0.41%18.00%8.13%9.87%
American Gas Stock Index-8.47%-1.24%0.76%18.84%8.03%12.81%
S&P 500-9.45%-0.43%-5.08%11.30%3.50%10.23%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses: 0.75%

TOTAL RETURNS REPRESENT PAST PERFORMANCE, WHICH IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS. The current performance may be lower or higher than performance data quoted. Investment return and principal will fluctuate so that investors' shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. The performance data does not reflect the deduction of redemption fees and if reflected, the redemption fee would reduce the performance quoted.

Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. This and other important information about the investment company can be found in the fund's prospectus. To obtain a prospectus, please visit the prospectus page or call 888.200.4710. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing.


Fund investments are focused in the natural gas industry, which may be adversely affected by issues such as interest rates, weather, and the wholesale pricing of alternative fuels.

Portfolio Diagnostics as of 03/31/2008
Ticker Symbol............................... GASFX
CUSIP....................................... 30246J604
Inception Date.............................. 5/15/89
Fund Assets................................. $252.6m
TTM Turnover- unaudited as of 03/31/08...... 18%
Number of Holdings.......................... 70
Wgt. Avg. Mkt. Cap.......................... $18.7b
Wgt. Avg. 2008 P/E1.............. 15.7x
30-Day SEC Yield2................ 2.37%
Minimum Investment.......................... $2,000/$1000 IRA
NAV.................................. $21.37
Dividend Distribution....................... Quarterly
 
3-Year MPT Statistics as of 03/31/08
Beta3............................ 0.74
R-Squared4....................... 36
Standard Deviation5.............. 10.67
 
Top Ten Holdings as of 03/31/08
El Paso Corp./ep............................ 5.1%
Sempra Energy/sre........................... 5.0%
Transcanada Corp./trp....................... 5.0%
E.On AG - ADR/eongy......................... 4.9%
National Grid PLC - ADR/ngg................. 4.9%
Enbridge, Inc./enb.......................... 4.9%
GFsCreateSymbolLink=se...................... 4.9%
Williams Co., Inc./wmb...................... 4.5%
Public Service Enterprise/peg............... 4.0%
Dominion Resources, Inc./d.................. 3.7%
Total.......................................... 46.9%
 
Top Five Gainers Q1'08 % Change % Assets
Southwestern Energy Co./swn................. 20.9% 0.9%
Equitable Resources, Inc./eqt............... 10.6% 2.9%
Questar Corp./str........................... 4.6% 3.6%
LaClede Group, Inc./lg...................... 4.1% 0.6%
Enbridge, Inc./enb.......................... 1.81% 4.9%
 
Top Five Laggards Q1'08 % Change % Assets
PNM Resources, Inc./........................ -41.9% 0.1%
Energy West, Inc./.......................... -39.7% 0.01%
Cheniere Energy, Inc./...................... -39.3% 0.6%
Unisource Energy Corp./..................... -29.5% 0.1%
Sierra Pacific Resources/................... -25.6% 0.1%
 

The adviser of the Fund does not select stocks for investment based on a judgement of their individual future returns, but generally invest in the issues included in the Index.

By employing a statistical approach that concentrates all investments in a single industry, the Fund is subject to those risks associated with the natural gas distribution and transmission industry.

American Gas Index is a market-capitalization weighted Index adjusted for the percentage of gas assets of the 69 member companies of the American Gas Association. No company may account for greater than 5% of the Index.

The gas industry is sensitive to increased interest rates because of the capital intensive nature of the industry. Typically, a significant portion of the financing of the gas industry's assets is obtained through debt. As interest rates increase, such debt scheduled to be refinanced would be acquired at higher rates thereby adversely affecting earnings.

The indices are unmanaged and unlike the Gas Utility Index have no management fees or operating costs that reduce reported returns. The volatility and other risk characteristics for the fund will differ from the volatility and risk characteristics of the indices.

S&P 500 is a capitalization-weighted Index of 500 stocks. The Index is designed to represent the broad domestic economy through changes in aggregate market value of 500 stocks representing all major industries.

Philadelphia Bank Index (BKX) is a capitalization-weighted index consisting of 24 exchange-listed and national market system stocks, representing national money center banks and leading regional institutions.

Dow Jones Utility Index is a price weighted average of 15 utility companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange and are involved in the production of electrical energy.

Russell 2000 is comprised of the smallest 2000 companies of the Russell 3000 Index, representing approximately 11% of the Russell 3000’s total market-capitalization.

Lipper Fund Averages, Lipper Analytical Services, Inc., is a nationally recognized organization that reports on mutual fund total return performance and calculates fund rankings. Peer averages are based on universes of funds with the same investment objective. Peer group averages include reinvested dividends and capital gains, if any, and exclude sales charges. These averages include the following: Lipper Financial Services Index and the Lipper Small Cap Value Index.

Morningstar proprietary ratings reflect risk-adjusted performance as of the period stated above. For each fund with at least a 3-yr history, Morningstar calculates a Morningstar Rating™ based on a Morningstar risk-adjusted return measure that accounts for variation in a fund's monthly performance placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of funds in each category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars and the bottom 10% receive 1 star.

©Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Morningstar is not responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information.


1- Price-to-Earnings Ratio – Market price per share divided by earnings per share.
2- SEC Yield - is "standardized" yield calculated in accordance with SEC Rule 34b-1 and reflects an estimated yield to maturity, assuming all portfolio securities are held to maturity. All yields will vary and are not guranteed.
3- Beta - Measures a portfolio's sensitivity to market movements.
4- R-Squared - Indicated the extent to which fluctuations in portfolio returns are correlated with those of the broad based index.
5- Standard Deviation - Measure of risk that gauges the variability of actual returns from their expected values and dispersions of these variations over time.

 
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The Daily NAV is as of the previous business day's closing. Funds NAV are updated at approximately 5:30 p.m. EST daily.

This website does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy shares of the FBR Funds to any person in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.

Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. This and other important information about the investment company can be found in the Fund's prospectus. To obtain a free prospectus, please call 888.200.4710. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing.

The FBR Funds are distributed by FBR Investment Services, Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC.

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