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If you have been looking for Mutual Fund Bond funds, a place to start could be BlackRock High Yield Bond Institutional (BHYIX). BHYIX holds a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on nine forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
History of Fund/Manager
BlackRock is based in New York, NY, and is the manager of BHYIX. BlackRock High Yield Bond Institutional debuted in November of 1998. Since then, BHYIX has accumulated assets of about $10.30 billion, according to the most recently available information. A team of investment professionals is the fund's current manager.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund carries a 5-year annualized total return of 2.15%, and is in the top third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 0.21%, which places it in the top third during this time-frame.
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. Over the past three years, BHYIX's standard deviation comes in at 10.35%, compared to the category average of 14%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 8.59% compared to the category average of 12.4%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
BHYIX carries a beta of 0.43, meaning that the fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a positive alpha of 1.54, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.
Expenses
Costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing, and particularly as competition heats up in this market. And all things being equal, a lower cost product will outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, so taking a closer look at these metrics is key for investors. In terms of fees, BHYIX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.57% compared to the category average of 0.99%. So, BHYIX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.
While the minimum initial investment for the product is $2 million, investors should also note that there is no minimum for each subsequent investment.
Bottom Line
Overall, BlackRock High Yield Bond Institutional ( BHYIX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively strong performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, BlackRock High Yield Bond Institutional ( BHYIX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.