June 10, 2011

Vanguard Wellesley Income Fund (VWINX)

Well known for its index funds, Vanguard also has several actively managed flagship funds such as Vanguard Wellesley Income, Vanguard Wellington, Vanguard Windsor, Vanguard STAR, PRIMCECAP Core etc. These funds also have impressive performance for the past decade.  This next article will discuss in details about Vanguard Wellesley Income fund. This fund is part of balanced fund with conservative allocation asset. This means this fund will invest in bonds and stocks. Most of the asset will be diversified into bonds and some are in stocks.

This type of fund will fit long term investor and short term investor with lower appetite to investment risk. This fund may provide instant asset diversification into fixed incomes and equities market. During the ups and downs market, this Vanguard fund has performed better. It is also has the highest rating from Morningstar. Details about this fund can be found below.

Top Balanced Fund

As one of the oldest mutual fund, this Vanguard Wellesley Income fund seeks to provide long-term income growth and a high and sustainable level of current income, along with moderate long-term capital appreciation. The fund invests most of its asset (60-65%) in investment-grade corporate, U.S. Treasury, and government agency bonds, and mortgage-backed securities (MBS). The rest of its assets (35% to 45%) are invested in companies’ common stocks that have a history of above-average dividends or expectations of increasing dividends.

June 9, 2011

10 Best Municipal Bond Closed End Funds 2011

A little info about CEFs

Closed End Fund or CEF is traded like stock. You can buy and sell or hold this fund through your favorite brokerage. The fund price may be traded on premium or discount from its fund’s Net Asset Value (NAV). This fund may be volatile than typical mutual fund hence it also uses a leverage to enhance its performance return. This leverage may also increase volatility and risk of the fund. Details about CEF can be found from my previous article.

National Municipal Bond CEF

Top Performer Municipal Bond Closed End Funds 2011 CEF
Top Performer Muni bond CEFs
Similar to mutual funds, there are two main categories of fixed income closed end funds: Taxable Fixed Income and Tax Free Income or Non Taxable Fixed Income. Non Taxable fixed income CEFs are mainly focusing in Municipal bonds investment. These muni bonds are debt or obligation issued by a state, city, or other locality / municipality for general governmental needs or to finance specific projects. These muni bonds are attractive hence the interest is exempt from regular federal income tax. State specific bonds of the resident investors may also provide additional income free for the residents of those states.

For Muni bond closed end fund, this is one of the largest single categories in CEF. It offers many national municipal bond funds and 18 state specific Muni bond funds including New York, California, Texas, Florida, Minnesota, Illinois, etc.

The following 10 top performers are sorted based on its fund market price performance until June 2011. These funds were obtained from variety of financial website such as individual fund website, cefconnect, cefa, Morningstar, etc.

  1. BlackRock MuniHoldings Qty II (MUE)
  2. EV Municipal Income (ENV)
  3. Invesco Insured Municipal Bond (IMC)
  4. Nuveen Municipal Advantage (NMA)
  5. BlackRock Invst. Quality Muni (BKN)
  6. BlackRock Municipal Income Inv (BBF)
  7. Invesco Insured Muni Income (IIM)
  8. PIMCO Municipal Income (PMF)
  9. Nuveen Insured Quality Muni (NQI)
  10. BlackRock MuniHoldings Quality (MUS)

Loomis Sayles Investment Grade Bond A (LIGRX) Fund

Bond fund can be essential for short term as well as long term investor. For short term investor, it can provide regular income and higher yield than regular saving account or certificate of deposit (CD). For long term investor, it can provide more stability to its long term portfolio asset. Although bond fund is riskier than traditional saving account, it is certainly less risky than equity fund. Choosing the right fund may be important to protect your investment capital. This next fund, Loomis Sayles Investment Grade Bond fund, is also bond fund with consistent performance for the past decade. It also has a well known management team. Details about this fund are described below.

Loomis Sayles Investment Grade Bond A (Ticker: LIGRX)

As part of Natixis Funds, Loomis Sayles Investment Grade Bond fund seeks high total investment return through a combination of capital appreciation and current income. This fund invest mainly in investment grade fixed income securities or bonds. It may invest <10% of assets in lower rated fixed income securities or non investment grade bonds. It may also invest any portion of its assets in Canadian issuers’ securities and < 20% in foreign issuers’ obligations including emerging market sector.

LIGRX Fund Details
Loomis Sayles Investment Grade Bond
  • Fund Inception Date: December 1996
  • Ticker Symbol: LIGRX
  • CUSIP: 543487136
  • Beta (3yr): 1.79 
  • Rank in category (YTD):  2
  • Category: Intermediate-Term Bond
  • Dividend Yield: 4.53%
  • Distribution frequency: Monthly
  • Sales Load: 4.50%
  • Effective Duration: 6.27 years
  • Average Maturity: 9.61 years
  • Number of holdings: 551
  • Capital Gains: 0.05% (last distributed in May 2011)
  • Number of Years Up: 13 years
  • Number of Years Down: 1 year
updated on June 6th, 2011

June 8, 2011

Oakmark Equity & Income I (OAKBX) Fund

The next article is Oakmark Equity & Income fund which is Moderate Allocation Balanced Mutual fund. This type of fund is suitable for buy and hold investor. Hence it is a balanced fund; investor can get instant portfolio diversification. This Oakmark balanced fund is investing in bonds and equities and has 5 stars rating from Morningstar. Details about this fund's review are described below.

Oakmark Equity & Income I (OAKBX)

The Oakmark Equity & Income I fund objective is to provide current income, preservation and capital growth. The fund invests majority of its assets in a diversified portfolio of U.S. equity and fixed-income securities. It invests approximately 40-75% of total assets in common stock, convertible, and up to 60% of assets in U.S. government securities and debt securities rated within the two highest grades assigned by rating agencies. It may invest <35% of assets in Foreign securities.

OAKBX Fund Details
Oakmark Equity & Income I (OAKBX)
Oakmark Equity & Income I
  • Fund Inception Date: November 1995
  • Ticker Symbol: OAKBX
  • CUSIP: 413838400
  • Beta (3yr): 0.477
  • Rank in category (YTD): 21
  • Category: Moderate allocation
  • Yield: 0.76%
  • Turnover rate: 91%
  • Total Net Asset: $20.4 billion
  • Capital Gains: N/A
  • Number of Years Up: 13 years
  • Number of Years Down: 2 years
Updated on June 7th, 2011

June 7, 2011

Top Performing High Yield Taxable Bond Mutual Funds 2011

Introduction

As part of taxable bond category, non investment grade corporate bond or junk bond is not well known among regular investors. This non investment bond is also known as high yield bond. Most investors may have under invested in this category due to its low percentage in overall bond benchmark index. There are several reasons to invest in this high yield corporate bond: 
  • It provides high regular income either monthly or quarterly
  • It also has relative short or intermediate duration (2-6 years). Current bond index has 4.1 – 4.5 years average duration
  • It has less volatility than stock or equity
  • Top Performing High Yield Taxable Bond Mutual Funds 2011
    Top High Yield Bond Funds
  • If the issuer can improve its balance sheet, the credit agencies may upgrade its debt or bond. This can provide instant boost to the bond value
There are two easiest alternatives to invest in this high yield bonds such as bond mutual fund or exchange traded fund. Both can provide instant asset diversification to your portfolio. The following article will focus on top performer high yield bond fund June 2011.

The list is sorted based on its fund performance up to June 1st, 2011. The list is compiled from various financial websites like Morningstar, Yahoo finance, Google finance, Kiplinger, MSN, etc.

  1. John Hancock3 Core High Yield A (JYIAX)
  2. Spirit of America Income A (SOAIX)
  3. Fidelity Advisor High Income Advantage A (FAHDX)
  4. Loomis Sayles High Income A (NEFHX)
  5. Pioneer High Yield A (TAHYX)
updated on 6/7/2011

June 6, 2011

Vanguard Dividend Growth Fund (VDIGX): Best Kip 25 Fund

Always known for its Index Funds, Vanguard also offers variety of low cost actively managed funds. Some of these funds are also among the leader and best fund in its class. The following Vanguard Dividend Growth fund is among one of these best funds offered by Vanguard. This fund is advised by Wellington Management Company LLP. This Vanguard fund also received various awards such as Best fund in Kiplinger 2011 fund list, featured in The Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors, 5 stars rating from S&P, 5 stars rating from Morningstar.

This Vanguard Dividend Growth fund is also categorized as US Domestic Large Blend stock fund. Rule of thumb is to have about 20-30% of asset in the US Domestic stock fund. You can also invest in variety of large cap mutual fund in Kip 25 list such as Fidelity Contrafund, Primecap Odyssey Growth, Dodge & Cox Stock, T Rowe Price Equity Income, and BBH Core Select. Details about the fund information, performance, characteristics, class, fees, etc can be found below.

Vanguard Dividend Growth Inv (Ticker: VDIGX)

The Vanguard Dividend Growth fund is to provide a growing stream of income over time. The fund’s secondary objective is providing capital appreciation and current income. The fund manager teams focus the investment on high-quality companies as they invest primarily in stocks that tend to offer current dividends. The fund’s management believes those companies have long-term total returns prospects. Also, these companies usually will grow earnings and are willing to increase the dividends over time.

VDIGX Fund Profile

    Vanguard Dividend Growth Fund (VDIGX)
  • Fund Inception Date: May 1992
  • Ticker Symbol: VDIGX
  • CUSIP: 921908604
  • Net Assets: $5.7 billion 
  • Beta (3yr): 0.80
  • Rank in category: 54
  • Category: Large Blend
  • Yield: 1.75%
  • Capital Gains: N/A
  • Number of Years Up: 12 years
  • Number of Years Down: 4 years
The fund manager for this Vanguard fund is Donald J. Kilbride. He has managed this fund since February 2006. Should you be interested to invest in this fund, the minimum balance to invest in either brokerage or IRA account is $3,000 with $100 minimum subsequent investment. This fund has no sales-load fee and no 12b1 fee. The annual expense ratio is 0.34% and the average expense ratio in the category is 1.13%.
The performance of this fund is:
  • 1-year: 15.50%
  • 3-year: 4.07%
  • 5-year: 5.71%
  • 10-year: 2.87%
This domestic stock fund has 4-stars rating from Morningstar. As May 2011, it has 8.69% year-to-date return. This fund has recorded its best performance return in 2003 with 29.20%. The worst performance occurred in 2008 with -25.57%.

VDIGX can be purchased from 81 brokerages include JP Morgan, Vanguard NTF, Royal Alliance, Raymond James, Sun Life CPS, Firstrade, ETrade No Load Fee, Pershing FundCenter, TD Ameritrade, Inc., CommonWealth PPS, Schwab RPS SDE, T. Rowe Price, etc. Vanguard has a total of 30 funds in the large blend category. The best way to invest in Vanguard funds is to open Vanguard brokerage account. Investor also can invest in Vanguard exchange traded funds (Vanguard ETF) for free. More details on my previous article.

Best Kip 25 FundThe 10 largest holdings for the first quarter as of March 2011 are Automatic Data Processing Inc (3.5%), Exxon Mobil Corp (3.4%), Pfizer Inc (3.1%), BG Group plc (2.9%), PepsiCo Inc (2.9%), Western Union Co (2.8%), Medtronic Inc (2.8%), International Business Machines Corp (2.7%), General Dynamics Corp (2.7%), and Cardinal Health Inc. (2.7%). These top 10 holdings are equal to 29.5% of the total net assets. The annual holdings turnover as per November 2010 is 17.00%, while the average turnover in the Large Blend category is 69.01%. The top six sectors include Health Care (16.7%), Consumer Staples (15.3%), Industrials (15.2%), Information Technology (15.2%), Energy (13.2%) and Consumer Discretionary (9.1%).

Investing in mutual fund always involves primary investment risks:
  • Stock market risk
  • Manager risk
  • Investment style risk
Goods:
  • It has low expense ratio fee
  • It has diversified portfolio
Disclosure: No Position

June 5, 2011

PIMCO Total Return A (PTTAX) Fund

PIMCO Total Return A (PTTAX) is one of the best taxable bond mutual funds. This PIMCO intermediate term bond fund provides income to investors.

PIMCO Total Return A (Ticker: PTTAX)

As the top popular mutual fund in 2010, PIMCO Total Return fund has been the best rated fund in bond category. PIMCO Total Return also received 4 stars rating from Morningstar. This intermediate term bond fund objective is seeking maximum total return, consistent with capital preservation and prudent investment management. The fund usually invests most of total assets (>65%)in a diversified portfolio of Fixed-Income Instruments of varying maturities, which may be represented by forwards or derivatives such as options, futures contracts, or swap agreements. It invests in investment-grade debt securities, but may invest >10% of total assets in high-yield securities (junk bonds).

PTTAX Fund Details

    PIMCO Total Return Fund (PTTAX) Class A
  • Fund Inception Date: January 13, 1997
  • Ticker Symbol: PTTAX
  • CUSIP: 693390445
  • Beta (3yr): 0.92
  • Rank in category (YTD): 57
  • Category: Intermediate-Term Bond
  • Yield: 2.62%
  • Expense fee: 0.85%
  • Assets: $73.7 billion
  • Capital Gains: N/A
  • Fund Manager: Mark R. Kiesel, Scott A. Mather, Mihir P. Worah

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