Looking for a Mutual Fund Bond fund? You may want to consider PGIM Global Total Return A (GTRAX Quick QuoteGTRAX - Free Report) as a possible option. 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

PGIM is based in Providence, RI, and is the manager of GTRAX. The PGIM Global Total Return A made its debut in July of 1986 and GTRAX has managed to accumulate roughly $183.87 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of -0.82%, and it sits in the middle third among its category peers. But if you are looking for a shorter time frame, it is also worth looking at its 3-year annualized total return of -8%, which places it in the bottom 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. Over the past three years, GTRAX's standard deviation comes in at 10.2%, compared to the category average of 13.44%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 10% compared to the category average of 14.01%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

This fund has a beta of 1.03, meaning that it is more volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, GTRAX has a negative alpha of -0.81, 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, GTRAX has 25.72% in high quality bonds rated at least 'AA' or higher, while 50.81% are of medium quality, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund's junk bond component-bonds rated 'BB' or below-is at 22.45%, giving GTRAX an average quality of A. This means that it focuses on high quality securities.

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, GTRAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.89% compared to the category average of 0.94%. Looking at the fund from a cost perspective, GTRAX is actually cheaper than its peers.

While the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $100.

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

Bottom Line

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.