Yahoo Finance Is PFIIX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?
Having trouble finding a Mutual Fund Bond fund? PIMCO Floating Income Fund Institutional (PFIIX) is a potential starting point. PFIIX bears 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
PIMCO Funds is based in Newport Beach, CA, and is the manager of PFIIX. The PIMCO Floating Income Fund Institutional made its debut in July of 2004 and PFIIX has managed to accumulate roughly $2.74 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 2.36%, and is in the top 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 2.99%, 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. Over the past three years, PFIIX's standard deviation comes in at 4.26%, compared to the category average of 14.47%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 4.62% compared to the category average of 12.69%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
With a beta of 0.24, this fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, PFIIX has a positive alpha of 1.04, 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, PFIIX has 45.6% in high quality bonds rated at least 'AA' or higher, while 29.8% are of medium quality, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund's junk bond component-bonds rated 'BB' or below-is at 24.3%, giving PFIIX 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, PFIIX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.50% compared to the category average of 0.76%. From a cost perspective, PFIIX is actually cheaper than its peers.
Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $1 million; each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.
Bottom Line
Overall, PIMCO Floating Income Fund Institutional ( PFIIX ) 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 PFIIXin the Mutual Fund Bond 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. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Get Your Free (PFIIX): Fund Analysis Report
