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Is PONCX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

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If you have been looking for Diversified Bonds funds, a place to start could be PIMCO Income C (PONCX - Free Report) . PONCX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

PONCX is one of many Diversified Bonds funds to choose from. Diversified Bonds funds give investors exposure to a variety of fixed income types that span across different issuers, maturities, and credit levels. Usually, these funds will have a good amount of exposure to government debt, in addition to modest holdings in the corporate bond market.

History of Fund/Manager

PONCX is a part of the PIMCO Funds family of funds, a company based out of Newport Beach, CA. Since PIMCO Income C made its debut in April of 2007, PONCX has garnered more than $7.14 billion in assets. A team of investment professionals is the fund's current manager.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 4.88%, and is 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 3.65%, 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. Over the past three years, PONCX's standard deviation comes in at 5.74%, compared to the category average of 13.74%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 4.6% compared to the category average of 11.48%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

With a beta of 0.38, this fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, PONCX has a positive alpha of 2.9, 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, PONCX has 21.55% in high quality bonds rated at least 'AA' or higher, while 30.31% are of medium quality, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund's junk bond component-bonds rated 'BB' or below-is at 40.27%, giving PONCX 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, PONCX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.66% compared to the category average of 0.86%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, PONCX is actually more expensive than its peers.

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

Bottom Line

Overall, PIMCO Income C ( PONCX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, better downside risk, and higher fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

Want even more information about PONCX? Then go over to Zacks.com and check out our mutual fund comparison tool, and all of the other great features that we have to help you with your mutual fund analysis for additional information. Want to learn even more? We have a full suite of tools on stocks that you can use to find the best choices for your portfolio too, no matter what kind of investor you are.


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