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Is DINAX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

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There are plenty of choices in the Diversified Bonds category, but where should you start your research? Well, one fund that might be worth investigating is Morgan Stanley Global Fixed Income Opportunity A (DINAX - Free Report) . DINAX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

We classify DINAX in the Diversified Bonds category, an area that is rife with potential choices. Diversified Bonds funds offer exposure to a wide variety of fixed income types, stretching across various issuers, credit levels, and maturities. Generally speaking, bond funds here will have sizable exposure to government debt, as well as modest holdings in the corporate bond market too.

History of Fund/Manager

DINAX is a part of the MorgStanley family of funds, a company based out of New York, NY. The Morgan Stanley Global Fixed Income Opportunity A made its debut in August of 1997 and DINAX has managed to accumulate roughly $112.31 million in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals.

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 4.86%, 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 4.72%, which places it in the middle 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. DINAX's standard deviation over the past three years is 6.22% compared to the category average of 13.51%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 4.96% compared to the category average of 11.2%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

This fund has a beta of 0.66, meaning that it is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, DINAX has a positive alpha of 2.72, 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, DINAX has 42.41% in medium quality bonds, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund's junk bond component-bonds rated 'BB' or below-is at 28.35%, giving DINAX an average quality of BBB. This means that it focuses on medium quality securities.

However, it is worth noting that 22 % of the bonds in this fund are not ranked, so take the average quality level with a bit of caution.

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, DINAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.82% compared to the category average of 0.85%. From a cost perspective, DINAX is actually cheaper than its peers.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $1,000, and each subsequent investment should be at least $100.

Bottom Line

Overall, Morgan Stanley Global Fixed Income Opportunity A ( DINAX ) 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.

Don't stop here for your research on Diversified Bonds 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 DINAX to its peers 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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