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Is OIBAX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

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Are you on the hunt for a Mutual Fund Bond fund? You should think about starting with Oppenheimer International Bond A (OIBAX - 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

OIBAX is a part of the Invesco family of funds, a company based out of Kansas City, MO. Since Oppenheimer International Bond A made its debut in June of 1995, OIBAX has garnered more than $428.68 million in assets. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of -0.24%, and is 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 -4.65%, 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 OIBAX over the past three years is 11.23% compared to the category average of 13.44%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 12.48% compared to the category average of 14.01%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

With a beta of 0.38, this fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, OIBAX has a negative alpha of -0.26, 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, OIBAX has 27.22% in high quality bonds rated at least 'AA' or higher, while 34.26% are of medium quality, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund's junk bond component-bonds rated 'BB' or below-is at 36.04%, giving OIBAX an average quality of BBB. This means that it focuses on medium 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, OIBAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.01% compared to the category average of 0.94%. From a cost perspective, OIBAX is actually more expensive 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

Don't stop here for your research on Mutual Fund Bond funds. We also have plenty more on our site in order to help you find the best possible fund for your portfolio. Make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for more information about the world of funds, and feel free to compare OIBAX to its peers as well for additional information. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible.


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