Metropolitan West Total Return Bond M Fund (MWRTX)

Metropolitan West Total Return Bond M fund (MWRTX) is part of best taxable bond mutual fund. This fixed income fund objective is to provide long term return.

Metropolitan West Total Return Bond M (MWTRX)

The Metropolitan West Total Return Bond fund is seeking to maximize long-term total return. This MetWest fund will invest most of net assets (>80%) in investment grade fixed income securities or unrated securities that are determined by the fund’s adviser to be of similar quality. Some of its net assets (<20%) may be invested in securities rated below investment grade (i.e. junk bonds). The fund will try to maintain the portfolio duration from two to eight years and the dollar-weighted average maturity ranges from two to fifteen years.

MWTRX Fund Details

• Fund Inception Date: March 1997
• Ticker Symbol: MWTRX (Investor Class)
• CUSIP: 592905103
• Beta (3yr): 0.90
• Rank in category (YTD): 47
• Category: Intermediate Term Bond
• Dividend Yield: 1.72%
• Expense Fee: 0.66%
• Net Assets: $79.3 billion
• Capital Gains: N/A
• Number of Years Up: 11 years
• Number of Years Down: 2 years
• Average Duration: 4.41 years
• Average Maturity: 6.76 years

This MWTRX fund has $13.7 billion net assets. The annual expense ratio of this MetWest fund is 0.63%. This is lower than the average expense, 0.94%. The last dividend was distributed in May 2011.This fund has returned 9.06% over the past one year and 10.12% over the past 3 years. It has experienced 11 years with positive return and 2 years with negative return. The best return was recorded in 2009 with 17.08%.

This fund does have 12b1 fee of 0.21% and there is no sales-load fee. It has gotten 5-stars rating from Morningstar. This fund is managed by Tad R. Rivelle since its inception in March 1997. The minimum balance required to invest in this fund is $5,000 for brokerage account with no minimum subsequent investment. While for IRA account, the initial investment is $1,000.

This intermediate term bond fund can be purchased from 98 brokerages include JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, T Rowe Price, DATALynx, Dreyfus NTF, Td Ameritrade, Schwab Retail, Royal Alliance, Raymond James, Firstrade, etc. The other classes of this top bond fund are Institutional Class (Ticker: MWTIX) and Class N (Ticker: MWTNX). This institutional class was introduced to investors three years after the M Class. The institutional class, MWTIX, has only 0.45% annual expense fee.

• Year 2017: 5.88% (YTD)
• Year 2016: 14.92%
• Year 2015: -3.17%
• Year 2014: 6.96%
• Year 2013: 37.19%

The bond’s sectors in this fund are Mortgage Backed Securities MBS (56.9%), Corporate bonds (24.5%), UST/ AGY (16.6%), ABS (4.2%), other (1.0%), and Cash & Equivalents (-3.2%).

Principal risk of this fund include: Market Risk, Interest Rate Risk, Credit Risk, Foreign Securities Risk, Securities Selection Risk, Portfolio Management Risk, Prepayment Risk of Asset-Backed and Mortgage Backed Securities, Extension Risk of Asset Backed and Mortgage-Backed Securities, Derivatives Risk, and Liquidity Risk.

Disclosure: No Position

Other bond fund articles:

• Weitz Short-Intermediate Income Fund (WEFIX)
• T. Rowe Price High Yield Fund (PRHYX)

For short term to intermediate term investors, bond funds should be part of their investment portfolio. Bond funds can provide instant diversification in various bond sectors such as government bond, corporate bond, junk bond, foreign bond, emerging market bond, convertible bond, bank loan, multi-sector bond, municipal bonds, US treasury, etc. These sectors can provide instant portfolio diversification. Bond funds are also known as fixed income funds.

There are several advantages of investing in bond funds such as:

• Bond funds can provide regular income either taxable or non taxable
• Bond funds are less volatile than equity funds
• It can provide additional stability during bear market

One of the best bond funds is Metropolitan West Total Return Bond fund. This Metropolitan West fund has provided consistent performance than other bond funds. Its manager is also well known among bond managers. Details about the fund are described below.

This Metropolitan West Total Return Bond M Fund (MWRTX) is part of Kiplinger's 25 best mutual funds.