Is NMHYX a Strong Bond Fund Right Now?

If investors are looking at the Mutual Fund Bond fund category, Northern Multi-Managed High Yield Opportunity (NMHYX) could be a potential option. NMHYX carries 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

NMHYX finds itself in the Northern family, based out of Chicago, IL. Northern Multi-Managed High Yield Opportunity made its debut in October of 2009, and since then, NMHYX has accumulated about $199.98 million in assets, per the most up-to-date date available. The fund is currently managed by Christopher Vella who has been in charge of the fund since January of 2012.

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 1.63%, and is in the middle third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of 1.09%, 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. Compared to the category average of 10.81%, the standard deviation of NMHYX over the past three years is 11.47%. Looking at the past 5 years, the fund's standard deviation is 9.21% compared to the category average of 8.8%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

This fund has a beta of 0.23, meaning that it is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. Taking this into account, NMHYX has a positive alpha of 2.08, 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, NMHYX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.86% compared to the category average of 0.98%. So, NMHYX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

Investors need to be aware that with this product, the minimum initial investment is $2,500; each subsequent investment needs to be at least $50.

Bottom Line

Overall, Northern Multi-Managed High Yield Opportunity ( NMHYX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Northern Multi-Managed High Yield Opportunity ( NMHYX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

For additional information on this product, or to compare it to other mutual funds in the Mutual Fund Bond, make sure to go to www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for additional information. Zacks provides a full suite of tools to help you analyze your portfolio - both funds and stocks - in the most efficient way possible.

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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.