Investors interested in maintaining exposure to both equity and fixed-income securities may consider betting on balanced mutual funds. Also, these mutual funds are believed to offer higher returns than pure, fixed-income investments while maintaining a low volatility level.
The proportion of equity and fixed-income investments in these funds may also vary in response to market conditions. While managers may raise the share of fixed-income securities during a downturn to avoid losses, the share of equity securities may be increased in a bullish market. Hence, these funds are expected to harness the inherent strengths of both classes of investments.
Below, we share with you three top-ranked balanced mutual funds, namely Dodge & Cox Balanced Fund DODBX, Thornburg Investment Income Builder TIBAX and Schwab MarketTrack All Equity SWEGX. Each has earned a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and is expected to outperform its peers in the future. Investors can click here to see the complete list of funds.
Dodge & Cox Balanced Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation, along with current income, by investing most of its net assets in a diversified portfolio of equity and debt securities in various proportions. DODBX advisors may also invest a small portion of their net assets in U.S. dollar-denominated equity or debt securities of foreign issuers traded in the United States but not part of the S&P 500 Index.
Dodge & Cox Balanced Fund has three-year annualized returns of 11.8%. DODBX has an expense ratio of 0.52%.
Thornburg Investment Income Builder invests primarily in a broad range of income-producing securities, mainly comprising stocks and bonds. It usually invests a vast majority of its net assets in income-producing securities and in common stocks.
Thornburg Investment Income Builder has three-year annualized returns of 19.8%. As of June 2025, TIBAX held 64 issues, with 6.5% of its assets invested in Orange SA.
Schwab MarketTrack All Equity maintains a defined asset allocation in stock investments, with certain percentages for different segments of the stock market. SWEGX invests the majority of its net assets in stock investments.
Schwab MarketTrack All Equity has three-year annualized returns of 16.4%. Drew Hayes has been one of the fund managers of SWEGX since 2023.
To view the Zacks Rank and the past performance of all balanced mutual funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of balanced mutual funds.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
