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Is ACGYX 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 AB Income Advisor (ACGYX - Free Report) . ACGYX holds a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

AllianceBernstein is based in New York, NY, and is the manager of ACGYX. Since AB Income Advisor made its debut in April of 2016, ACGYX has garnered more than $2.16 billion in assets. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of -0.21%, and is in the middle third among its category peers. But if you are looking for a shorter time frame, it is also worth looking at its 3-year annualized total return of -5.16%, which places it in the middle 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. The standard deviation of ACGYX over the past three years is 7.47% compared to the category average of 12.29%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 7.63% compared to the category average of 12.98%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

This fund has a beta of 0.94, meaning that it is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, ACGYX has a positive alpha of 0.18, 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, ACGYX has 77.3% in high quality bonds rated at least 'AA' or higher, while 20.8% are of medium quality, with ratings of 'A' to 'BBB'. The fund has an average quality of AA, and focuses on high quality securities.

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, ACGYX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.38% compared to the category average of 0.75%. So, ACGYX is actually more expensive than its peers from a cost perspective.

Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $0 and that 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, AB Income Advisor ( ACGYX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, better downside risk, and higher fees, this fund looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

Want even more information about ACGYX? Then go over to Zacks.com and check out our mutual fund comparison tool, and all of the other great features that we have to help you with your mutual fund analysis 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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