Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Is DINAX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

Read MoreHide Full Article

If investors are looking at the Diversified Bonds fund category, Morgan Stanley Global Fixed Income Opportunity A (DINAX - Free Report) could be a potential option. DINAX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

DINAX is one of many Diversified Bonds funds to choose from. Diversified Bonds funds give investors exposure to a variety of fixed income types that span across different issuers, maturities, and credit levels. Usually, these funds will have a good amount of exposure to government debt, in addition to modest holdings in the corporate bond market.

History of Fund/Manager

DINAX is a part of the MorgStanley family of funds, a company based out of New York, NY. Since Morgan Stanley Global Fixed Income Opportunity A made its debut in August of 1997, DINAX has garnered more than $110.97 million in assets. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 3.87%, and is in the top 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 4%, which places it in the top 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. DINAX's standard deviation over the past three years is 6.11% compared to the category average of 12.49%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 5.13% compared to the category average of 10.98%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

DINAX carries a beta of 0.7, 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 1.24, 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, DINAX has 38.07% in medium quality bonds, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund's junk bond component-bonds rated 'BB' or below-is at 26.25%, giving DINAX an average quality of BBB. This means that it focuses on medium quality securities.

However, it is worth noting that 22 % of the bonds in this fund are not ranked, so take the average quality level with a bit of caution.

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, DINAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.86% compared to the category average of 0.89%. From a cost perspective, DINAX is actually cheaper than its peers.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $1,000, and each subsequent investment should be at least $100.

Bottom Line

Overall, Morgan Stanley Global Fixed Income Opportunity A ( DINAX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, better downside risk, and lower fees, Morgan Stanley Global Fixed Income Opportunity A ( DINAX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

Want even more information about DINAX? 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. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible.


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


MorgStan Global Fixed Inc Opport A (DINAX) - free report >>

Published in