PIMCO Investment Grade Corporate Bond A Fund (PBDAX)

This next fund is another PIMCO fund with the highest Morningstar rating. This fund is also part of bond fund. As described before, bond fund can be classified into variety of sectors such as corporate bond, government bond, global bond, emerging markets bond, US Treasury, municipal bond, foreign bond, high yield bond, bank loan, etc. These bond funds also have various type of duration ranging from short term to long term. The following PIMCO Investment Grade Corporate Bond fund will focus its asset by investing in investment grade corporate bond with 3-7 years average duration. Details can be found below.

PIMCO Investment Grade Corporate Bond A (PBDAX)

PIMCO PBDAX fund characteristics

The PIMCO Investment Grade Corporate Bond fund investment objective is to seek maximum total return consistent with capital preservation and prudent investment management. The fund typicall invests majority of assets (>80%) in a diversified portfolio of investment-grade corporate fixed-income securities of varying maturities.

This PBDAX fund invests may invest some of its total assets (<15%) in high-yield securities or non investment grade bonds (i.e. junk bonds). In addition, this fund may invest up to 30% of total assets in foreign currencies securities, and may invest beyond this limit in U.S. dollar-denominated securities of foreign issuers.

PBDAX Fund Details

• Fund Inception Date: July 2004
• Ticker Symbol: PBDAX (class A)
• CUSIP: 722008307
• Beta (3yr): 1.55
• Rank in category (YTD):  4
• Category: Intermediate-Term Bond
• Dividend Yield: 4.63%
• Morningstar Rating: 5 stars
• Net Assets: $5. 87 billion
• Capital Gains: N/A
• Number of Years Up: 6 years
• Number of Years Down: 0 year
• Average Duration: 6.07 years
• Average Maturity: 9.94 years

updated on June 17th, 2011

Mark Kiesel is the lead manager of this top bond fund since November 2002. This PIMCO fund was then introduced to public on July 2004. Investor may invest in this fund using brokerage account or retirement account (IRA, 401k). You will need $1,000 initial investment for brokerage account. For subsequent investment, you only need $100 or more to add any new funding to initial investment. The 12b1 fee is 0.25%. This PIMCO fund also has 3.75% front-end sales load. Currently, this PBDAX fund has expense ratio of 0.90% per year. This expense fee is comparable to the average expense fee in the Intermediate-Term Bond category which is 0.94%.

This intermediate-term bond fund has returned 9.44% over the past three years and 7.54% over the past decade. It has recorded the best one year return in 2009 with 18.27% return. PBDAX has a 5-star rating from Morningstar for its 6 years positive return with no negative return yet. This fund also has a dividend yield of 4.63%.

Investor can buy this PIMCO fund from 81 brokerages, such as JPMorgan, Vanguard, Merrill Lynch, Raymond James, Edward Jones, Scottrade Load, LPL SAM Eligible, Firstrade, Prudential Retail, etc. Investors can also choose from the other classes of this PIMCO fund, such as Admin Class (Ticker: PGCAX), C Class (Ticker: PBDCX), D Class (Ticker: PBDDX), Institutional Class (Ticker: PIGIX) and P Class (Ticker: PBDPX). The PIGIX fund also doesn’t have load, it only has 0.50% expense ratio fee.

Top Diversified Bond Mutual Funds

As of June 2011, the top industry sector exposure of this fund is 24.28% in banks, 10.27% in brokerage, 7.45% in pipelines, 6.86% in independent E&P, 5.93% in metals& mining, 5.48% in insurance life and 4.42% in integrated oil.

Pros:

• It provide high yield for income
• Good track record

Disclosure: No Position