Yahoo Finance Is PONPX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?
Having trouble finding a Mutual Fund Bond fund? PIMCO Income I2 (PONPX) is a potential starting point. PONPX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
History of Fund/Manager
PIMCO Funds is based in Newport Beach, CA, and is the manager of PONPX. PIMCO Income I2 made its debut in May of 2008, and since then, PONPX has accumulated about $29.76 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals.
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 2.06%, and it sits in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 3.32%, which places it in the middle 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, PONPX's standard deviation comes in at 6.01%, compared to the category average of 15.99%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 6.06% compared to the category average of 13.99%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
PONPX carries a beta of 0.47, 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 1.07, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.
Ratings
Investors should also consider a bond's rating, which is a grade ( 'AAA' to 'D' ) given to a bond that indicates its credit quality. With this letter scale in mind, PONPX has 50.07% in high quality bonds rated at least 'AA' or higher, while 21.17% are of medium quality, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund's junk bond component-bonds rated 'BB' or below-is at 27.9%, giving PONPX an average quality of A. This means that it focuses on high quality securities.
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, PONPX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.60% compared to the category average of 0.83%. PONPX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.
Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $1 million; each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.
Bottom Line
Overall, PIMCO Income I2 ( PONPX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, better downside risk, and lower fees, PIMCO Income I2 ( PONPX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.
Don't stop here for your research on Mutual Fund Bond funds. We also have plenty more on our site in order to help you find the best possible fund for your portfolio. Make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for more information about the world of funds, and feel free to compare PONPX to its peers as well for additional information. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible.
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