Is SWRSX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

Have you been searching for a Mutual Fund Bond fund? You might want to begin with Schwab Treasury Inflation Protected Security (SWRSX). 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

Schwab Funds is based in San Francisco, CA, and is the manager of SWRSX. The Schwab Treasury Inflation Protected Security made its debut in March of 2006 and SWRSX has managed to accumulate roughly $2.99 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund's current manager, Matthew Hastings, has been in charge of the fund since March of 2006.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 3.59%, 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 4.36%, 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, SWRSX's standard deviation comes in at 4.56%, compared to the category average of 4.87%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 4.02% compared to the category average of 4.24%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

With a beta of 0.74, this fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, SWRSX has a positive alpha of 2.42, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.

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, SWRSX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.05% compared to the category average of 0.82%. SWRSX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $0, while there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.

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 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.

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