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Is OIBYX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

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Any investors who are searching for Mutual Fund Bond funds should take a look at Oppenheimer International Bond Y (OIBYX - Free Report) . While this fund is not tracked by the Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, we were able to examine other factors like performance, volatility, and cost.

History of Fund/Manager

OIBYX finds itself in the Invesco family, based out of Kansas City, MO. Oppenheimer International Bond Y made its debut in October of 2004, and since then, OIBYX has accumulated about $517.27 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. A team of investment professionals is the fund's current manager.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. OIBYX has a 5-year annualized total return of -2.95% and it sits in the bottom third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of -5.12%, 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. OIBYX's standard deviation over the past three years is 14.48% compared to the category average of 15.32%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 12.16% compared to the category average of 13.35%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

With a beta of 0.37, this fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, OIBYX has a negative alpha of -2.53, 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, OIBYX has 30.18% in high quality bonds rated at least 'AA' or higher, while 20.05% are of medium quality, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund's junk bond component-bonds rated 'BB' or below-is at 45.87%, giving OIBYX an average quality of BBB. This means that it focuses on medium quality securities.

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, OIBYX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.76% compared to the category average of 0.89%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, OIBYX is actually cheaper than its peers.

While the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $50.

Bottom Line

This could just be the start of your research on OIBYXin the Mutual Fund Bond 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. 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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