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Is PCRAX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

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Having trouble finding a Mutual Fund Bond fund? Well, PIMCO Commodity Real Retail Strategy A (PCRAX - Free Report) would not be a good potential starting point right now. PCRAX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), 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 PCRAX. PIMCO Commodity Real Retail Strategy A made its debut in June of 2002, and since then, PCRAX has accumulated about $364.46 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 6.86%, 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 13.08%, 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. PCRAX's standard deviation over the past three years is 22.29% compared to the category average of 17.46%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 18.7% compared to the category average of 15.19%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

With a beta of -1.04, this fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, PCRAX has a positive alpha of 7.68, 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, PCRAX has 97.67% in high quality bonds rated at least 'AA' or higher. The fund has an average quality of AAA, and 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, PCRAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.19% compared to the category average of 0.83%. So, PCRAX is actually more expensive than its peers from a cost perspective.

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

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

Your research on the Mutual Fund Bond segment doesn't have to stop here. You can check out all the great mutual fund tools we have to offer by going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds to see the additional features we offer as well for additional information. If you want to check out our stock reports as well, make sure to go to Zacks.com to see all of the great tools we have to offer, including our time-tested Zacks Rank.


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