If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Bond fund category, a potential starting could be MFS Municipals High Income Fund A (MMHYX Quick QuoteMMHYX - Free Report) . MMHYX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

MMHYX is a part of the MFS family of funds, a company based out of Boston, MA. The MFS Municipals High Income Fund A made its debut in February of 1984 and MMHYX has managed to accumulate roughly $1.39 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. A team of investment professionals is the fund's current manager.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 1.25%, and it sits in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of -1.76%, which places it in the middle third during this time-frame.

It is important to note that the product's returns may not reflect all its expenses. Any fees not reflected would lower the returns. Total returns do not reflect the fund's [%] sale charge. If sales charges were included, total returns would have been lower.

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 MMHYX over the past three years is 8.93% compared to the category average of 13.28%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 8.68% compared to the category average of 13.84%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

This fund has a beta of 1.1, meaning that it is more volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, MMHYX has a negative alpha of -0.7, 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, MMHYX has 35.96% in medium quality bonds, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund's junk bond component-bonds rated 'BB' or below-is at 20.33%, giving MMHYX an average quality of BBB. This means that it focuses on medium quality securities.

However, it is worth noting that 37 % of the bonds in this fund are not ranked, so take the average quality level with a bit of caution.

Expenses

As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, MMHYX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.60% compared to the category average of 0.94%. From a cost perspective, MMHYX is actually cheaper than its peers.

Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000 and that each subsequent investment needs to be at $50

Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into considiration. Returns would be less if those were included.

Bottom Line

Overall, MFS Municipals High Income Fund A ( MMHYX ) has a neutral Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, better downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a somewhat average 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 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.