Is SWRSX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

SWRSX

Have you been searching for a Mutual Fund Bond fund? You might want to begin with Schwab Treasury Inflation Protected Security (SWRSX - Free Report) . The fund does not have a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, though we have been able to explore other metrics like performance, volatility, and cost.

History of Fund/Manager

SWRSX is a part of the Schwab Funds family of funds, a company based out of San Francisco, CA. Schwab Treasury Inflation Protected Security made its debut in March of 2006, and since then, SWRSX has accumulated about $2.75 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund is currently managed by Matthew Hastings who has been in charge of the fund since March of 2006.

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 2.41%, and it sits in the middle third among its category peers. But if you are looking for a shorter time frame, it is also worth looking at its 3-year annualized total return of 1.59%, 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. Compared to the category average of 7.67%, the standard deviation of SWRSX over the past three years is 6.98%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 5.78% compared to the category average of 5.87%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

This fund has a beta of 0.82, meaning that it is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, SWRSX has a positive alpha of 2.2, 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, SWRSX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.05% compared to the category average of 0.83%. From a cost perspective, SWRSX is actually cheaper than its peers.

Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $0 and that each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.

Bottom Line

For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Mutual Fund Bond, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds 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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