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Is ACTHX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

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If you've been stuck searching for Mutual Fund Bond funds, consider Invesco High Yield Municipals A (ACTHX - Free Report) as a possibility. ACTHX possesses 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

Invesco is based in Kansas City, MO, and is the manager of ACTHX. The Invesco High Yield Municipals A made its debut in January of 1986 and ACTHX has managed to accumulate roughly $5.23 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund's current manager is 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 1.83%, and it sits in the middle third among its category peers. If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3-year annualized total return of -1.01%, 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, ACTHX's standard deviation comes in at 9.24%, compared to the category average of 14.32%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 7.4% compared to the category average of 12.56%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

With a beta of 0.88, this fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, ACTHX has a positive alpha of 0.6, 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, ACTHX has 21.78% in medium quality bonds, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund's junk bond component-bonds rated 'BB' or below-is at 21.71%, giving ACTHX an average quality of BBB. This means that it focuses on medium quality securities.

However, it is worth noting that 48 % of the bonds in this fund are not ranked, so take the average quality level with a bit of caution.

Expenses

Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, ACTHX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.86% compared to the category average of 0.79%. From a cost perspective, ACTHX is actually more expensive than its peers.

Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $1,000; each subsequent investment needs to be at least $50.

Bottom Line

Overall, Invesco High Yield Municipals A ( ACTHX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, better downside risk, and higher fees, this fund 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. 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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