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If investors are looking at the Investment Grade Bond - Intermediate fund category, USAA Intermediate-Term Bond Fund (USIBX) could be a potential option. USIBX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 1 (Strong Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.
Objective
USIBX is one of many Investment Grade Bond - Intermediate funds to pick from. Investment Grade Bond - Intermediate funds focus on the middle part of the curve, generally with bonds that usually mature in more than three years but less than 15 years. Fixed income instruments with this maturity level usually have medium duration risk, but they also compensate investors with a modest yield, at least when compared to their short maturity counterparts. Additionally, the focus on investment grade will make funds here safer, but yields will be lower than in the junk bond category.
History of Fund/Manager
USIBX finds itself in the Victory family, based out of Columbus, OH. USAA Intermediate-Term Bond Fund debuted in August of 1999. Since then, USIBX has accumulated assets of about $1.47 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 in particular has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 1.38%, 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 -1.06%, which places it in the top 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. USIBX's standard deviation over the past three years is 7.14% compared to the category average of 12.93%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 7.02% compared to the category average of 13.45%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.
This fund has a beta of 0.87, meaning that it is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, USIBX has a positive alpha of 1.61, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.