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Is SWRSX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

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Have you been searching for a Government - Bonds: Misc 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.

Objective

SWRSX is one of many Government - Bonds: Misc funds to choose from. In their portfolios, Government - Bonds: Misc funds hold securities issued by the United States' federal government, which are often seen as risk-free assets and described as extremely low-risk from a default perspective. While a mixed approach usually results in a medium yield and risk profile, this fund category focuses across the curve, meaning the yields and interest rate sensitivity will vary.

History of Fund/Manager

Schwab Funds is responsible for SWRSX, and the company is based out of San Francisco, CA. The Schwab Treasury Inflation Protected Security made its debut in March of 2006 and SWRSX has managed to accumulate roughly $1.86 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. Matthew Hastings is the fund's current manager and has held that role since March of 2006.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. SWRSX has a 5-year annualized total return of 4.39% and is in the bottom third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 6.38%, which places it in the bottom 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. SWRSX's standard deviation over the past three years is 3.93% compared to the category average of 16.73%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 3.6% compared to the category average of 13.97%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

With a beta of 0.92, this fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, SWRSX has a positive alpha of 1.27, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.

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, SWRSX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.05% compared to the category average of 0.84%. So, SWRSX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

While the minimum initial investment for the product is $0, investors should also note that there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

Bottom Line

For additional information on the Government - Bonds: Misc 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 SWRSX 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.


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