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Any investors who are searching for Mutual Fund Bond funds should take a look at Invesco Senior Loan A (VSLAX - Free Report) . While this fund is not tracked by the Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, we were able to examine other factors like performance, volatility, and cost.
History of Fund/Manager
VSLAX finds itself in the Invesco family, based out of Kansas City, MO. Since Invesco Senior Loan A made its debut in February of 2005, VSLAX has garnered more than $49.09 million in assets. The fund's current manager is 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 2.43%, and it sits 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 7.46%, 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, VSLAX's standard deviation comes in at 5.28%, compared to the category average of 13.98%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 8.28% compared to the category average of 13.92%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
With a beta of -0.22, this fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, VSLAX has a positive alpha of 1.32, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.
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, VSLAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.66% compared to the category average of 0.97%. So, VSLAX is actually more expensive than its peers from a cost perspective.
While the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $50.
Bottom Line
For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Mutual Fund Bond, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds 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 VSLAX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?
Any investors who are searching for Mutual Fund Bond funds should take a look at Invesco Senior Loan A (VSLAX - Free Report) . While this fund is not tracked by the Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, we were able to examine other factors like performance, volatility, and cost.
History of Fund/Manager
VSLAX finds itself in the Invesco family, based out of Kansas City, MO. Since Invesco Senior Loan A made its debut in February of 2005, VSLAX has garnered more than $49.09 million in assets. The fund's current manager is 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 2.43%, and it sits 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 7.46%, 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, VSLAX's standard deviation comes in at 5.28%, compared to the category average of 13.98%. The fund's standard deviation over the past 5 years is 8.28% compared to the category average of 13.92%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
With a beta of -0.22, this fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, VSLAX has a positive alpha of 1.32, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.
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, VSLAX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.66% compared to the category average of 0.97%. So, VSLAX is actually more expensive than its peers from a cost perspective.
While the minimum initial investment for the product is $1,000, investors should also note that each subsequent investment needs to be at least $50.
Bottom Line
For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Mutual Fund Bond, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds 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.