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Is PTIAX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

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Having trouble finding a Government Bond - Intermediate fund? Performance Trust Total Return Bond (PTIAX - Free Report) is a potential starting point. PTIAX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

Zacks categorizes PTIAX as Government Bond - Intermediate, which is a segment packed with options. Holding securities issued by the U.S. federal government, Government Bond - Intermediate funds are often seen as risk-free assets and are described as extremely low-risk from a default perspective. These kind of funds carry the risk and return potential that falls between short and long government bonds, and are best suited for those looking to complement an existing core bond portfolio.

History of Fund/Manager

Performance is responsible for PTIAX, and the company is based out of New York, NY. The Performance Trust Total Return Bond made its debut in August of 2010 and PTIAX has managed to accumulate roughly $8.53 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Of course, investors look for strong performance in funds. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 0.85%, and is in the top third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of -1.01%, which places it in the top 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. Compared to the category average of 12.09%, the standard deviation of PTIAX over the past three years is 6.68%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 6.33% compared to the category average of 12.46%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

PTIAX carries a beta of 0.81, meaning that the fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a positive alpha of 0.85, 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, PTIAX has 59.62% in high quality bonds rated at least 'AA' or higher, while 27.74% are of medium quality, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund has an average quality of AA, 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, PTIAX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.76% compared to the category average of 0.85%. So, PTIAX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $2,500 and that each subsequent investment needs to be at $500

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

Bottom Line

Overall, Performance Trust Total Return Bond ( PTIAX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, better downside risk, and lower fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

This could just be the start of your research on PTIAXin the Government Bond - Intermediate 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.


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