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Is MWTSX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

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Having trouble finding a Mutual Fund Bond fund? Well, Metropolitan West Total Retail Bond Plan (MWTSX - Free Report) would not be a good potential starting point right now. MWTSX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

MWTSX finds itself in the Metropolitan family, based out of Los Angeles, CA. The Metropolitan West Total Retail Bond Plan made its debut in August of 2011 and MWTSX has managed to accumulate roughly $24.61 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. A team of investment professionals is the fund's current manager.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 3.68%, and it sits in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 6.42%, 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. The standard deviation of MWTSX over the past three years is 3.47% compared to the category average of 12.48%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 3.25% compared to the category average of 10.38%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

With a beta of 1.01, this fund is more volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, MWTSX has a positive alpha of 0.59, 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, MWTSX has 71.04% in high quality bonds rated at least 'AA' or higher, while 22.77% are of medium quality, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund has an average quality of AA, 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, MWTSX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.37% compared to the category average of 0.85%. So, MWTSX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $25 million; each subsequent investment needs to be at least $50,000.

Bottom Line

Overall, Metropolitan West Total Retail Bond Plan ( MWTSX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, better downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a somewhat weak choice for investors right now.

Don't stop here for your research on Mutual Fund Bond funds. We also have plenty more on our site in order to help you find the best possible fund for your portfolio. Make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for more information about the world of funds, and feel free to compare MWTSX to its peers as well for additional information. If you are more of a stock investor, make sure to also check out our Zacks Rank, and our full suite of tools we have available for novice and professional investors alike.


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