Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Is VTAPX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

Read MoreHide Full Article

Have you been searching for a Mutual Fund Bond fund? You might want to begin with Vanguard Short Term Inflation Protected Security Index Advisor (VTAPX - Free Report) . While this fund is not tracked by the Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, we were able to examine other factors like performance, volatility, and cost.

History of Fund/Manager

VTAPX is a part of the Vanguard Group family of funds, a company based out of Malvern, PA. Vanguard Short Term Inflation Protected Security Index Advisor debuted in October of 2012. Since then, VTAPX has accumulated assets of about $20.80 billion, according to the most recently available information. The fund's current manager, Joshua Barrickman, has been in charge of the fund since October of 2012.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 2.46%, and is in the top 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 2.62%, which places it in the top 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. VTAPX's standard deviation over the past three years is 3.29% compared to the category average of 13.64%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 2.64% compared to the category average of 11.68%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

This fund has a beta of 0.28, meaning that it is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, VTAPX has a positive alpha of 1.88, 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, VTAPX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.06% compared to the category average of 0.65%. So, VTAPX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

While the minimum initial investment for the product is $3,000, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $1.

Bottom Line

This could just be the start of your research on VTAPXin 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. 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.


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


Vanguard Sh-Trm Inf-Prtc Sec Idx Ad (VTAPX) - free report >>

Published in