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If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Bond funds, it would not be wise to start your search with Vanguard Intermediate-Term Investment-Grade Admiral (VFIDX - Free Report) . VFIDX holds a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
History of Fund/Manager
Vanguard Group is based in Malvern, PA, and is the manager of VFIDX. Since Vanguard Intermediate-Term Investment-Grade Admiral made its debut in February of 2001, VFIDX has garnered more than $35.26 billion in assets. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.
Performance
Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 3.84%, and is in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 6.96%, 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. Over the past three years, VFIDX's standard deviation comes in at 4.62%, compared to the category average of 11.1%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 4.14% compared to the category average of 9.17%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
VFIDX carries a beta of 1.15, meaning that the fund is more volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a positive alpha of 0.52, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.
Expenses
As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, VFIDX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.10% compared to the category average of 0.79%. VFIDX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.
This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $50,000, and each subsequent investment should be at least $1.
Bottom Line
Overall, Vanguard Intermediate-Term Investment-Grade Admiral ( VFIDX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, better downside risk, and lower fees, Vanguard Intermediate-Term Investment-Grade Admiral ( VFIDX ) looks like a somewhat weak 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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Is VFIDX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?
If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Bond funds, it would not be wise to start your search with Vanguard Intermediate-Term Investment-Grade Admiral (VFIDX - Free Report) . VFIDX holds a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
History of Fund/Manager
Vanguard Group is based in Malvern, PA, and is the manager of VFIDX. Since Vanguard Intermediate-Term Investment-Grade Admiral made its debut in February of 2001, VFIDX has garnered more than $35.26 billion in assets. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.
Performance
Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 3.84%, and is in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 6.96%, 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. Over the past three years, VFIDX's standard deviation comes in at 4.62%, compared to the category average of 11.1%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 4.14% compared to the category average of 9.17%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
VFIDX carries a beta of 1.15, meaning that the fund is more volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a positive alpha of 0.52, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.
Expenses
As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, VFIDX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.10% compared to the category average of 0.79%. VFIDX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.
This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $50,000, and each subsequent investment should be at least $1.
Bottom Line
Overall, Vanguard Intermediate-Term Investment-Grade Admiral ( VFIDX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, better downside risk, and lower fees, Vanguard Intermediate-Term Investment-Grade Admiral ( VFIDX ) looks like a somewhat weak 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.