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Is Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index Admiral (VBILX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
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Looking for a Mutual Fund Equity Report fund? You may want to consider Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index Admiral (VBILX - Free Report) as a possible option. VBILX has no Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, but we have been able to look into other metrics like performance, volatility, and cost.
History of Fund/Manager
Vanguard Group is responsible for VBILX, and the company is based out of Malvern, PA. The Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index Admiral made its debut in November of 2001 and VBILX has managed to accumulate roughly $16.04 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. Joshua Barrickman is the fund's current manager and has held that role since April of 2008.
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 0.65%, 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 -2.24%, 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. Compared to the category average of 14.26%, the standard deviation of VBILX over the past three years is 6.53%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 5.64% compared to the category average of 12.41%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
With a 5-year beta of 1.1, the fund is likely to be more volatile than the market average. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. The fund has produced a positive alpha over the past 5 years of 0.57, which shows that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
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, VBILX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.07% compared to the category average of 0.79%. VBILX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.
This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $3,000, and each subsequent investment should be at least $1.
Bottom Line
For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Mutual Fund Equity Report, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds 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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Is Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index Admiral (VBILX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?
Looking for a Mutual Fund Equity Report fund? You may want to consider Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index Admiral (VBILX - Free Report) as a possible option. VBILX has no Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, but we have been able to look into other metrics like performance, volatility, and cost.
History of Fund/Manager
Vanguard Group is responsible for VBILX, and the company is based out of Malvern, PA. The Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index Admiral made its debut in November of 2001 and VBILX has managed to accumulate roughly $16.04 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. Joshua Barrickman is the fund's current manager and has held that role since April of 2008.
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 0.65%, 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 -2.24%, 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. Compared to the category average of 14.26%, the standard deviation of VBILX over the past three years is 6.53%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 5.64% compared to the category average of 12.41%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
Risk Factors
With a 5-year beta of 1.1, the fund is likely to be more volatile than the market average. Alpha is an additional metric to take into consideration, since it represents a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark, which in this case, is the S&P 500. The fund has produced a positive alpha over the past 5 years of 0.57, which shows that managers in this portfolio are skilled in picking securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.
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, VBILX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.07% compared to the category average of 0.79%. VBILX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.
This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $3,000, and each subsequent investment should be at least $1.
Bottom Line
For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Mutual Fund Equity Report, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds 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.