Yahoo Finance Is VFSUX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?
If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Bond funds, a place to start could be Vanguard Short-Term Investment-Grade Admiral (VFSUX). VFSUX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
History of Fund/Manager
Vanguard Group is based in Malvern, PA, and is the manager of VFSUX. Vanguard Short-Term Investment-Grade Admiral debuted in February of 2001. Since then, VFSUX has accumulated assets of about $37.47 billion, according to the most recently available information. Daniel Shaykevich is the fund's current manager and has held that role since April of 2018.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 1.48%, and it sits in the middle 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 -1.11%, 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, VFSUX's standard deviation comes in at 3.17%, compared to the category average of 10.58%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 3.32% compared to the category average of 11.19%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
With a beta of 0.45, this fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, VFSUX has a positive alpha of 0.56, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.
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, VFSUX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.10% compared to the category average of 0.84%. VFSUX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.
While the minimum initial investment for the product is $50,000, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $1.
Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into considiration. Returns would be less if those were included.
Bottom Line
Overall, Vanguard Short-Term Investment-Grade Admiral ( VFSUX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, better downside risk, and lower fees, Vanguard Short-Term Investment-Grade Admiral ( VFSUX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.
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. 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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