Delaware Extended Duration Bond Fund (DEEAX)

Delaware Extended Duration Bond Fund (DEEAX) is a great bond mutual fund for financial investing. It invests mainly in long duration debts.

Top Financial Investment

The investment objective of Delaware Extended Duration Bond Fund is to seek total return. This mutual fund invests mainly in corporate bonds. Its focus is on corporate bonds that have investment grade credit ratings from a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO). This bond mutual fund may also invest in unrated bonds, if the fund managers believe their credit quality is comparable to those that have investment grade ratings. It may also invest < 20% of its net assets in high yield corporate bonds or junk bonds.

Fund Details

• Fund Inception Date: 09/14/1998
• Ticker Symbol: DEEAX
• CUSIP: 245908835
• Beta (3yr): 2.49
• Rank in category (YTD): 71%
• Category: Long-Term Bond
• Yield: 4.30%
• Capital Gains: 0%
• Expense Ratio: 0.95%
• Net Assets: $ 756.3 million
• Number of Years Up: 12 years
• Number of Years Down: 2 years
• Average Duration: 12.59 years
• Average Maturity: 18.39 years
• Annual Turnover Rate: 172%

Updated on September 27, 2013

This Delaware fund is one of the top performers in Long-Term Bond category. This investment fund was first introduced to public in September 1998. It has total net assets of $756.3 million. It also has 0.95% annual expense ratio. The 12-month trailing yield is 4.30%. The dividend is distributed on monthly basis. The fund managers are Thomas H. Chow, Roger A. Early, Paul A. Matlack, Craig C. Dembek and John P. McCarthy.

The bond mutual fund has recorded 12-years of positive return and 2-years of negative return. The best 1-year total return was achieved in 2009 with 25.00%. The benchmarks are Barclays Long U.S. Corporate Index and Lipper Corporate Debt BBB-Rated Funds Average. The performance of this fund, based on the load adjusted returns, is as follow:

• 1-year: -2.82%
• 3-year: 8.59%
• 5-year: 11.52%
• 10-year: 7.87%

The other classes of this fund are Class B (DEEBX), Class C (DEECX), Class R (DEERX) and Institutional Class (DEEIX). The Institutional Class has 0.70% annual expense ratio. The minimum initial investment is $1,000 for brokerage account and $250 for retirement (IRA) account. The minimum subsequent investment needed is $100 for brokerage account and $25 for retirement account. This fund can be purchased from 102 brokerages. They are JP Morgan, Edward Jones, Merrill Lynch, Td Ameritrade Inc, LPL SAM Eligible, UBS Financial Services Inc, etc.

As of June 2013, the fund has a total of 273 holdings. The top holdings are Celgene Corp (1.3%), ERAC USA Finance LLC (1.2%), Zoetis Inc (1.1%), Berkshire Hathaway Finance Corp (1.1%), QVC Inc (1.1%), Apple Inc (1.1%), AGL Capital Corp (1.1%), Ingersoll-Rand Global Holdings Co (1.1%), Pernod-Richard SA (1.1%) and Georgia-Pacific LLC (1.0%). The top sectors are Financial Institutions (28.0%), Utility (19.9%), Communications (8.9%) and Non-corporate (8.1%).

Principal risks of investing in this fund are market risk, interest rate risk, credit risk, high yield (junk bond) risk, bank loans and other indebtedness risk, foreign risk, forward foreign currency risk, liquidity risk, derivatives risk and government and regulatory risk.

Disclosure: No Position