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If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Bond funds, it would not be wise to start your search with Loomis Sayles Bond Fund Retail (LSBRX - Free Report) . LSBRX possesses 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
Loomis-Sayles is based in Boston, MA, and is the manager of LSBRX. The Loomis Sayles Bond Fund Retail made its debut in May of 1991 and LSBRX has managed to accumulate roughly $966.99 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of -0.69%, and is in the bottom 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 -3.26%, which places it in the bottom 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 LSBRX over the past three years is 9.09% compared to the category average of 14.5%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 7.44% compared to the category average of 12.63%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
LSBRX carries a beta of 0.35, meaning that the fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a negative alpha of -0.34, 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, LSBRX has 21.74% in high quality bonds rated at least 'AA' or higher, while 40.8% are of medium quality, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund's junk bond component-bonds rated 'BB' or below-is at 23.61%, giving LSBRX an average quality of BBB. This means that it focuses on medium quality securities.
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, LSBRX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.92% compared to the category average of 0.78%. So, LSBRX is actually more expensive than its peers from a cost perspective.
While the minimum initial investment for the product is $2,500, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $50.
Bottom Line
Overall, Loomis Sayles Bond Fund Retail ( LSBRX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, better downside risk, and higher fees, Loomis Sayles Bond Fund Retail ( LSBRX ) looks like a somewhat weak choice for investors right now.
For additional information on the Mutual Fund Bond area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into LSBRX too 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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Is LSBRX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?
If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Bond funds, it would not be wise to start your search with Loomis Sayles Bond Fund Retail (LSBRX - Free Report) . LSBRX possesses 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
Loomis-Sayles is based in Boston, MA, and is the manager of LSBRX. The Loomis Sayles Bond Fund Retail made its debut in May of 1991 and LSBRX has managed to accumulate roughly $966.99 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of -0.69%, and is in the bottom 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 -3.26%, which places it in the bottom 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 LSBRX over the past three years is 9.09% compared to the category average of 14.5%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 7.44% compared to the category average of 12.63%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
LSBRX carries a beta of 0.35, meaning that the fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a negative alpha of -0.34, 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, LSBRX has 21.74% in high quality bonds rated at least 'AA' or higher, while 40.8% are of medium quality, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund's junk bond component-bonds rated 'BB' or below-is at 23.61%, giving LSBRX an average quality of BBB. This means that it focuses on medium quality securities.
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, LSBRX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.92% compared to the category average of 0.78%. So, LSBRX is actually more expensive than its peers from a cost perspective.
While the minimum initial investment for the product is $2,500, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $50.
Bottom Line
Overall, Loomis Sayles Bond Fund Retail ( LSBRX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively weak performance, better downside risk, and higher fees, Loomis Sayles Bond Fund Retail ( LSBRX ) looks like a somewhat weak choice for investors right now.
For additional information on the Mutual Fund Bond area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into LSBRX too 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.