Yahoo Finance Is DHYAX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?
If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Bond fund category, a potential starting could be Dreyfus High Yield Municipals Bond A (DHYAX). DHYAX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
History of Fund/Manager
DHYAX is a part of the BNY Mellon family of funds, a company based out of New York, NY. The Dreyfus High Yield Municipals Bond A made its debut in March of 2007 and DHYAX has managed to accumulate roughly $97.38 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by Jeffrey Burger who has been in charge of the fund since November of 2011.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 0.72%, and it sits in the bottom third among its category peers. If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3-year annualized total return of 1.72%, which places it in the bottom third during this time-frame.
When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. DHYAX's standard deviation over the past three years is 9.92% compared to the category average of 15.73%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 9.9% compared to the category average of 13.7%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
DHYAX carries a beta of 1.3, meaning that the fund is more volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a negative alpha of -1.43, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.
However, it is worth noting that 35 % of the bonds in this fund are not ranked, so take the average quality level with a bit of caution.
Expenses
As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, DHYAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.85% compared to the category average of 0.78%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, DHYAX is actually more expensive than its peers.
Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000 and that each subsequent investment needs to be at $100.
Bottom Line
Overall, Dreyfus High Yield Municipals Bond A ( DHYAX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, average downside risk, and higher fees, this fund looks like a somewhat average choice for investors right now.
Want even more information about DHYAX? Then go over to Zacks.com and check out our mutual fund comparison tool, and all of the other great features that we have to help you with your mutual fund analysis for additional information. For analysis of the rest of your portfolio, make sure to visit Zacks.com for our full suite of tools which will help you investigate all of your stocks and funds in one place.
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