There are plenty of choices in the Diversified Bonds category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that may not be worth investigating is Metropolitan West Total Retail Bond M (MWTRX Quick QuoteMWTRX - Free Report) . MWTRX holds a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

We classify MWTRX in the Diversified Bonds category, an area that is rife with potential choices. Diversified Bonds funds offer exposure to a wide variety of fixed income types, stretching across various issuers, credit levels, and maturities. Generally speaking, bond funds here will have sizable exposure to government debt, as well as modest holdings in the corporate bond market too.

History of Fund/Manager

MWTRX is a part of the Metropolitan family of funds, a company based out of Los Angeles, CA. Metropolitan West Total Retail Bond M debuted in April of 1997. Since then, MWTRX has accumulated assets of about $9.87 billion, according to the most recently available information. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. MWTRX has a 5-year annualized total return of 4.13% 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 5.37%, 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. The standard deviation of MWTRX over the past three years is 3.51% compared to the category average of 11.65%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 3.14% compared to the category average of 10.15%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

With a beta of 1.02, this fund is more volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, MWTRX has a positive alpha of 0.1, 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, MWTRX has 70.24% in high quality bonds rated at least 'AA' or higher, while 23.39% are of medium quality, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund has an average quality of AA, and focuses on high quality securities.

Expenses

Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, MWTRX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.67% compared to the category average of 0.88%. MWTRX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $5,000; each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.

Bottom Line

Overall, Metropolitan West Total Retail Bond M ( MWTRX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, better downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a somewhat weak choice for investors right now.

For additional information on the Diversified Bonds 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 MWTRX too 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.