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Is PDINX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

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Any investors hoping to find a Mutual Fund Bond fund might consider looking past Putnam Diversified Income A (PDINX - Free Report) . PDINX carries a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

Putnam Funds is based in Canton, MA, and is the manager of PDINX. Putnam Diversified Income A debuted in October of 1988. Since then, PDINX has accumulated assets of about $532.69 million, according to the most recently available information. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Investors naturally seek funds with strong performance. PDINX has a 5-year annualized total return of -0.95% and it sits in the bottom third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of -2.51%, which places it in the bottom third during this time-frame.

It is important to note that the product's returns may not reflect all its expenses. Any fees not reflected would lower the returns. Total returns do not reflect the fund's [%] sale charge. If sales charges were included, total returns would have been lower.

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, PDINX's standard deviation comes in at 4.93%, compared to the category average of 12.94%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 7.74% compared to the category average of 13.95%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

PDINX carries a beta of 0.05, meaning that the fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a negative alpha of -1.69, 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, PDINX has 60.64% in high quality bonds rated at least 'AA' or higher, while its junk bond component-bonds rated 'BB' or below-is at 21.69%. This means that the fund has an average quality of AA, and focuses on high quality securities.

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, PDINX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.52% compared to the category average of 0.81%. PDINX is actually cheaper than its peers when you consider factors like cost.

Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $500; each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.

Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into considiration. Returns would be less if those were included.

Bottom Line

Overall, even with its comparatively weak performance, better downside risk, and lower fees, Putnam Diversified Income A ( PDINX ) has a low Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and therefore looks a somewhat weak choice for investors right now.

Don't stop here for your research on Mutual Fund Bond 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 PDINX to its peers as well 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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