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Is VFIIX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

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If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Bond funds, a place to start could be Vanguard GNMA Investor (VFIIX - Free Report) . VFIIX holds a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

VFIIX finds itself in the Vanguard Group family, based out of Malvern, PA. The Vanguard GNMA Investor made its debut in June of 1980 and VFIIX has managed to accumulate roughly $5.11 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund's current manager, Brian Conroy, has been in charge of the fund since May of 2019.

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 -0.04%, 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 -3.26%, 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, VFIIX's standard deviation comes in at 5.87%, compared to the category average of 11.33%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 4.79% compared to the category average of 9.82%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

This fund has a beta of 0.96, meaning that it is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, VFIIX has a negative alpha of -0.73, 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, VFIIX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.21% compared to the category average of 0.77%. From a cost perspective, VFIIX is actually cheaper than its peers.

This fund requires a minimum initial investment of $3,000, and each subsequent investment should be at least $1.

Bottom Line

Overall, Vanguard GNMA Investor ( VFIIX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, better downside risk, and lower fees, Vanguard GNMA Investor ( VFIIX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

For additional information on the Mutual Fund Bond area of the mutual fund world, make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds. There, you can see more about the ranking process, and dive even deeper into VFIIX too for additional information. And don't forget, Zacks has all of your needs covered on the equity side too! Make sure to check out Zacks.com for more information on our screening capabilities, Rank, and all our articles as well.


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