Is DBLTX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

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Having trouble finding a Government Mortgage - Intermediate fund? Well, DoubleLine Total Return Bond I (DBLTX) would not be a good potential starting point right now. DBLTX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 4 (Sell), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

DBLTX is one of many Government Mortgage - Intermediate funds to choose from. Government Mortgage - Intermediate funds focus on the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) market. This market takes mortgages, packages them together, and sells off the pooled securities to investors. This particular category focuses on MBS that usually have at least three years to maturity, but less than 10, giving a medium risk and yield profile to funds here.

History of Fund/Manager

DBLTX finds itself in the Double Line family, based out of Los Angeles, CA. The DoubleLine Total Return Bond I made its debut in April of 2010 and DBLTX has managed to accumulate roughly $24.77 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by a team of investment professionals.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. DBLTX has a 5-year annualized total return of -0.23% and it sits in the bottom third among its category peers. But if you are looking for a shorter time frame, it is also worth looking at its 3-year annualized total return of -1.67%, which places it in the middle third during this time-frame.

It is important to note that the product's returns may not reflect all its expenses. Any fees not reflected would lower the returns. Total returns do not reflect the fund's [%] sale charge. If sales charges were included, total returns would have been lower.

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. DBLTX's standard deviation over the past three years is 7.03% compared to the category average of 12.02%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 6.01% compared to the category average of 12.33%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

DBLTX carries a beta of 1, meaning that the fund is volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a negative alpha of -0.27, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.

Ratings

Investors should also consider a bond's rating, which is a grade ( 'AAA' to 'D' ) given to a bond that indicates its credit quality. With this letter scale in mind, DBLTX has 70% in high quality bonds rated at least 'AA' or higher. The fund has an average quality of AA, and focuses on high quality securities.