A short-term government bond fund is a mutual fund limited by its investment objectives and fund by-laws to investing in short-term obligations of the federal government or its agencies. Depending on the fund’s definition, the short term can be up to five years.
Mutual funds investing in government debt securities are among the most secure options that provide regular income while protecting the capital invested. Funds that are part of this category bring a great deal of stability to a portfolio with a large proportion of equity. They provide dividends more frequently than individual bonds. Hence, these are considered the safest in the bond fund category and are ideal options for risk-averse investors.
Below, we share with you three top-ranked short-term government bond mutual funds, viz., PGIM Short Duration High Yield Income Fund HYSAX, Empower Short Duration Bond Fund MXSDX and Lord Abbett Short Duration Income Fund LALDX. 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.
PGIM Short Duration High Yield Income Fund invests its assets in a variety of low-investment-grade, high-yield, fixed-income instruments, derivatives with a range of maturities and other similar investments.
PGIM Short Duration High Yield Income Fund has three-year annualized returns of 5.3%. Robert Cignarella has been one of the fund managers of HYSAX since 2014.
Empower Short Duration Bond Fund invests most of its assets in investment-grade bonds. MXSDX advisors actively manage a portfolio of corporate bonds, asset-backed securities, commercial and residential mortgage-backed securities, U.S. treasuries, and agency securities.
Empower Short Duration Bond Fund has three-year annualized returns of 0.8%. MXSDX has an expense ratio of 0.60% compared with the category average of 0.68%.
Lord Abbett Short Duration Income Fund seeks a high level of income consistent with the preservation of capital by investing primarily in various types of short-duration debt securities. LALDX invests the majority of its net assets in investment-grade debt securities, securities issued or guaranteed by the U.S. government, and inflation-linked investments.
Lord Abbett Short Duration Income Fund has three-year annualized returns of 1.2%. As of November 2022, LALDX had 1.8% of its assets invested in US TREAS NOTE.
To view the Zacks Rank and the past performance of all short-term government bond mutual funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of short-term government bond mutual funds.
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