Yahoo Finance Is PIFZX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?
Mutual Fund Bond fund seekers may want to consider taking a look at PGIM Short-Term Corporate Bond Z (PIFZX). PIFZX 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
PIFZX finds itself in the PGIM family, based out of Providence, RI. Since PGIM Short-Term Corporate Bond Z made its debut in December of 1996, PIFZX has garnered more than $5.74 billion in assets. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.
Performance
Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 1.82%, and is in the middle third among its category peers. But if you are looking for a shorter time frame, it is also worth looking at its 3-year annualized total return of 0.48%, 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. Over the past three years, PIFZX's standard deviation comes in at 3.64%, compared to the category average of 15.24%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 4.09% compared to the category average of 13.38%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
PIFZX carries a beta of 0.46, meaning that the fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a positive alpha of 0.5, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.
Expenses
For investors, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is key, since costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing. Competition is heating up in this space, and a lower cost product will likely outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, all things being equal. In terms of fees, PIFZX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.47% compared to the category average of 0.66%. So, PIFZX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.
Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $0; each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.
Bottom Line
Overall, PGIM Short-Term Corporate Bond Z ( PIFZX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, better downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a somewhat average choice for investors right now.
For additional information on the Mutual Fund Bond area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into PIFZX too for additional information. Want to learn even more? We have a full suite of tools on stocks that you can use to find the best choices for your portfolio too, no matter what kind of investor you are.
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