If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Bond funds, a place to start could be Lord Abbett Short Duration Income A (LALDX Quick QuoteLALDX - Free Report) . LALDX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

Lord Abbett is based in Jersey City, NJ, and is the manager of LALDX. Lord Abbett Short Duration Income A debuted in November of 1993. Since then, LALDX has accumulated assets of about $8.65 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. LALDX has a 5-year annualized total return of 1.52% and is 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 1.23%, 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. LALDX's standard deviation over the past three years is 2.59% compared to the category average of 14.07%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 3.79% compared to the category average of 13.94%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

This fund has a beta of 0.25, meaning that it is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, LALDX has a positive alpha of 0.16, 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, LALDX has 43.47% in high quality bonds rated at least 'AA' or higher, while 41.9% are of medium quality, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund has an average quality of A, and focuses on high 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, LALDX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.58% compared to the category average of 0.65%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, LALDX is actually cheaper than its peers.

While the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,500, investors should also note that there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

Bottom Line

Overall, Lord Abbett Short Duration Income A ( LALDX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, better downside risk, and lower fees, Lord Abbett Short Duration Income A ( LALDX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

Your research on the Mutual Fund Bond 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 are more of a stock investor, make sure to also check out our Zacks Rank, and our full suite of tools we have available for novice and professional investors alike.