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Is American Beacon Sound Point Floating Rate Institutional (SPFLX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

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Having trouble finding a Mutual Fund Equity Report fund? American Beacon Sound Point Floating Rate Institutional (SPFLX - Free Report) is a possible starting point. SPFLX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

SPFLX finds itself in the American Beacon family, based out of Irving, TX. American Beacon Sound Point Floating Rate Institutional debuted in December of 2015. Since then, SPFLX has accumulated assets of about $192.04 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. SPFLX has a 5-year annualized total return of 3.24% and is 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 2.73%, 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, SPFLX's standard deviation comes in at 10.38%, compared to the category average of 13.7%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 8.03% compared to the category average of 11.51%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

The fund has a 5-year beta of 0.17, so investors should note that it is hypothetically less volatile than the market at large. Because alpha represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which is the S&P 500 in this case, one should pay attention to this metric as well. SPFLX's 5-year performance has produced a positive alpha of 2.05, which means managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

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, SPFLX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.84% compared to the category average of 0.78%. So, SPFLX is actually more expensive than its peers from a cost perspective.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $250,000, and each subsequent investment should be at least $50.

Bottom Line

Overall, American Beacon Sound Point Floating Rate Institutional ( SPFLX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and higher fees, this fund looks like a somewhat average choice for investors right now.

Your research on the Mutual Fund Equity Report segment doesn't have to stop here. You can check out all the great mutual fund tools we have to offer by going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds to see the additional features we offer as well for additional information. If you want to check out our stock reports as well, make sure to go to Zacks.com to see all of the great tools we have to offer, including our time-tested Zacks Rank.


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