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Is TRBUX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

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Having trouble finding a Mutual Fund Bond fund? T. Rowe Price Ultra Short-Term Bond (TRBUX - Free Report) is a potential starting point. TRBUX holds a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

T. Rowe Price is responsible for TRBUX, and the company is based out of Baltimore, MD. Since T. Rowe Price Ultra Short-Term Bond made its debut in December of 2012, TRBUX has garnered more than $1.46 billion in assets. Alexander Obaza is the fund's current manager and has held that role since March of 2020.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 2.3%, 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 1.72%, which places it in the middle third during this time-frame.

It is important to note that the product's returns may not reflect all its expenses. Any fees not reflected would lower the returns. Total returns do not reflect the fund's [%] sale charge. If sales charges were included, total returns would have been lower.

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. Compared to the category average of 7.74%, the standard deviation of TRBUX over the past three years is 0.9%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 1.61% compared to the category average of 8.39%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

TRBUX 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 positive alpha of 0.56, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.

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, TRBUX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.31% compared to the category average of 0.68%. So, TRBUX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

While the minimum initial investment for the product is $2,500, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $100.

Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into considiration. Returns would be less if those were included.

Bottom Line

Overall, T. Rowe Price Ultra Short-Term Bond ( TRBUX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, better downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

For additional information on the Mutual Fund Bond area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into TRBUX too 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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