Mutual Fund of the Week (ABNDX)

[oldskeet]

How a $75B Core Bond Fund Is Gearing Up for Inflation

Pramod Atluri, however, isn’t forgetting the reasons people still want bonds in their portfolios. The portfolio manager of the $75 billion American Funds Bond Fund of America (ticker: ABNDX) and his team maintain a philosophy that fixed income has four roles: income, capital preservation, inflation protection, and diversification.

www.barrons.com/articles/american-funds-core-bond-inflation-51628631914

[paulr888]

Aug 12, 2021 0:01:11 GMT oldskeet said:

How a $75B Core Bond Fund Is Gearing Up for Inflation 

Pramod Atluri, however, isn’t forgetting the reasons people still want bonds in their portfolios. The portfolio manager of the $75 billion American Funds Bond Fund of America (ticker: ABNDX) and his team maintain a philosophy that fixed income has four roles: income, capital preservation, inflation protection, and diversification.

www.barrons.com/articles/american-core-bond-inflation-51628631914

Late Q1 2020 Fidelity had a webcast with American Funds reps and their flagship fund, Bond Fund of America (share class BFAFX).  Their presentation said you need a good Core fund when things go bad like Q1 2020.  I didn't act at the time as the horses were out of the barn by the time the webcast came.  But over the ensuing months I decided to allocate 25% of my bond OEF money to a couple of bond funds that held up well in Q1 2020.  Certainly BFAFX was a contender.  I actually went with American Strategic Bond fund, ANBEX.  It did not get much discussion in the webcast but I actually like its performance better and it gives me a little better yield.  When issue of inflation hedge comes up I think of my equities including gold and other commodities, RE and some value stocks.  

[Deleted]

I see that both DODIX and ANBEX have done better than ABNDX.

[oldskeet]

I use to own ABNDX but moved out of it through nav transfers into other american funds many years back (mostly AMECX and CAIBX). Then, I began to buy PONAX through an average in process because of it's higher yield and stronger returns. Although PONAX has lost some of its luster, over the past couple of years, it has not disappointed me to the point (being a middle of the pack performer) that I kicked it to the curb and replaced it with another fund. PONAX is one of twelve funds that I hold within my income sleeve.

I'm thinking that one of the reasons that ABNDX caught the eye of the press to write about was that it is a widely held fund by many investors.

Here is its MW mutual fund report: www.marketwatch.com/investing/fund/abndx

On the Lipper Scoreboard ABNDX scores 19 points out of a possible 25.