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Having trouble finding a Government Bond - Short fund? Lord Abbett Short Duration Income A (LALDX) is a potential starting point. LALDX bears a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
We note that LALDX is a Government Bond - Short option, an area packed with various choices. Have securities issued by the United States' federal government in their portfolios. Generally, these are seen as extremely low risk from a default perspective and often regarded as risk-free. Government Bond - Short funds focus on the short end of the curve, which results in lower yields, but less sensitivity to interest rate fluctuations.
History of Fund/Manager
Lord Abbett is based in Jersey City, NJ, and is the manager of LALDX. Lord Abbett Short Duration Income A made its debut in November of 1993, and since then, LALDX has accumulated about $7.42 billion in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund's current manager is a team of investment professionals.
Performance
Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 1.79%, and is in the middle third among its category peers. If you're interested in shorter time frames, do not dismiss looking at the fund's 3 -year annualized total return of 1.58%, 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. Compared to the category average of 13.15%, the standard deviation of LALDX over the past three years is 2.56%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 3.91% compared to the category average of 13.94%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
With a beta of 0.28, this fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, LALDX has a positive alpha of 0.33, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.
Expenses
For investors, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is key, since costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing. Competition is heating up in this space, and a lower cost product will likely outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, all things being equal. In terms of fees, LALDX is a load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.58% compared to the category average of 0.91%. From a cost perspective, LALDX is actually cheaper than its peers.