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Is LAGVX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

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If you've been stuck searching for Mutual Fund Bond funds, consider Lord Abbett Income Fund A (LAGVX - Free Report) as a possibility. LAGVX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

LAGVX finds itself in the Lord Abbett family, based out of Jersey City, NJ. Lord Abbett Income Fund A debuted in January of 1982. Since then, LAGVX has accumulated assets of about $1.09 billion, according to 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. LAGVX has a 5-year annualized total return of 2.29% and it sits in the middle third among its category peers. But if you are looking for a shorter time frame, it is also worth looking at its 3-year annualized total return of 1.52%, 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. LAGVX's standard deviation over the past three years is 9.32% compared to the category average of 13.91%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 7.4% compared to the category average of 12.28%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

LAGVX carries a beta of 1.03, meaning that the fund is more volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a positive alpha of 1.24, 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, LAGVX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.73% compared to the category average of 0.86%. LAGVX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

While the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,500, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $50.

Bottom Line

Overall, Lord Abbett Income Fund A ( LAGVX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a great potential choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on LAGVXin the Mutual Fund Bond category. Consider going to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information about this fund, and all the others that we rank as well for additional information. Want to learn even more? We have a full suite of tools on stocks that you can use to find the best choices for your portfolio too, no matter what kind of investor you are.


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