Investment Grade Bond - Long fund seekers may want to consider taking a look at Vanguard Long-Term Investment-Grade Income Investor (VWESX Quick QuoteVWESX - Free Report) . VWESX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

VWESX is classified in the Investment Grade Bond - Long segment by Zacks, an area full of possibilities. Investment Grade Bond - Long funds focus on the long end of the curve, typically by investing in bonds that mature in more than 10 years. While fixed income instruments at this maturity level usually have high duration risk, they compensate investors with a larger yield than their short-maturity counterparts. These funds tend to be safer due to their focus on investment grade, but yields will be smaller than funds in the junk bond category.

History of Fund/Manager

Vanguard Group is based in Malvern, PA, and is the manager of VWESX. The Vanguard Long-Term Investment-Grade Income Investor made its debut in July of 1973 and VWESX has managed to accumulate roughly $5.36 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 5.9%, 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 10.64%, 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. Compared to the category average of 12.31%, the standard deviation of VWESX over the past three years is 10.61%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 9.23% compared to the category average of 10.38%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

VWESX carries a beta of 2.84, meaning that the fund is more volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a negative alpha of -0.28, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.

Expenses

For investors, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is key, since costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing. Competition is heating up in this space, and a lower cost product will likely outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, all things being equal. In terms of fees, VWESX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.22% compared to the category average of 0.85%. So, VWESX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $3,000, and each subsequent investment should be at least $1.

Bottom Line

Overall, Vanguard Long-Term Investment-Grade Income Investor ( VWESX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a somewhat average choice for investors right now.

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