Looking for an Investment Grade Bond - Short fund? You may want to consider Vanguard Short-Term Investment-Grade Admiral (VFSUX) as a possible option. VFSUX possesses a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

Objective

VFSUX is part of the Investment Grade Bond - Short category, a segment that boasts an array of other possible selections. Investment Grade Bond - Short funds target the short end of the curve by focusing on bonds that mature in less than two years. Fixed income instruments with this maturity level typically have low duration risk and pay out small yields, at least in comparison to their longer-dated peers. Also, these funds tend to be safer because of their focus on investment grade, but yields will be lower than could be found in the junk bond category.

History of Fund/Manager

VFSUX finds itself in the Vanguard Group family, based out of Malvern, PA. Vanguard Short-Term Investment-Grade Admiral debuted in February of 2001. Since then, VFSUX has accumulated assets of about $36.54 billion, according to the most recently available information. The fund's current manager, Daniel Shaykevich, has been in charge of the fund since April of 2018.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 1.62%, 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 -0.1%, which places it in the middle 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. Over the past three years, VFSUX's standard deviation comes in at 3.51%, compared to the category average of 10.4%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 3.49% compared to the category average of 11.2%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

VFSUX carries a beta of 0.44, meaning that the fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a positive alpha of 0.57, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.