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Is WFCMX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

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Mutual Fund Bond fund seekers should consider taking a look at Wells Fargo Coreblder Shares Series M (WFCMX - Free Report) . WFCMX holds a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

WFCMX is a part of the Wells Fargo family of funds, a company based out of San Francisco, CA. The Wells Fargo Coreblder Shares Series M made its debut in February of 2009 and WFCMX has managed to accumulate roughly $889.75 million in assets, as of 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. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 3.96%, and it sits in the top third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 5.53%, 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. WFCMX's standard deviation over the past three years is 4.81% compared to the category average of 4.16%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 4.55% compared to the category average of 3.92%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

WFCMX carries a beta of 0.66, meaning that the fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a positive alpha of 1.21, 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, WFCMX has 25.32% in high quality bonds rated at least 'AA' or higher, while 57.99% are of medium quality, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund has an average quality of A, and focuses on high quality securities.

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, WFCMX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0% compared to the category average of 0.79%. So, WFCMX 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

Overall, Wells Fargo Coreblder Shares Series M ( WFCMX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Wells Fargo Coreblder Shares Series M ( WFCMX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

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. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible.


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