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Is PCRAX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

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If you've been stuck searching for Diversified Bonds funds, consider PIMCO Commodity Real Retail Strategy A (PCRAX - Free Report) as a possibility. PCRAX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

PCRAX 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

PIMCO Funds is based in Newport Beach, CA, and is the manager of PCRAX. PIMCO Commodity Real Retail Strategy A debuted in June of 2002. Since then, PCRAX has accumulated assets of about $209.71 million, according to the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of -7.64%, and it sits 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 -5.76%, 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. Over the past three years, PCRAX's standard deviation comes in at 15.87%, compared to the category average of 13.96%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 15.18% compared to the category average of 12.63%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

PCRAX carries a beta of -0.05, meaning that the fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a negative alpha of -7.22, 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, PCRAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.19% compared to the category average of 0.89%. From a cost perspective, PCRAX is actually more expensive than its peers.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $1,000, and each subsequent investment should be at least $50.

Bottom Line

Overall, PIMCO Commodity Real Retail Strategy A ( PCRAX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and higher fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on PCRAXin the Diversified Bonds category. Consider going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information about this fund, and all the others that we rank as well 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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