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Is OIBAX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

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If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Bond funds, it would not be wise to start your search with Oppenheimer International Bond A (OIBAX - Free Report) . OIBAX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 5 (Strong Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

Invesco is based in Kansas City, MO, and is the manager of OIBAX. Oppenheimer International Bond A debuted in June of 1995. Since then, OIBAX has accumulated assets of about $690.03 million, according to the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 1.14%, 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 2.05%, 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, OIBAX's standard deviation comes in at 12.57%, compared to the category average of 13.35%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 10.55% compared to the category average of 11.2%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

With a beta of 0.96, this fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, OIBAX has a negative alpha of -1.08, 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, OIBAX has 25.59% in medium quality bonds, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund's junk bond component-bonds rated 'BB' or below-is at 34.38%, giving OIBAX 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, OIBAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1% compared to the category average of 0.92%. OIBAX is actually more expensive than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

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, Oppenheimer International Bond A ( OIBAX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and higher fees, Oppenheimer International Bond A ( OIBAX ) looks like a poor potential choice for investors right now.

Want even more information about OIBAX? 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. 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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