Balanced funds offer investors the convenience of buying into a single fund rather than holding both equity and bond funds. This category of funds also reduces a portfolio’s volatility while providing higher returns than pure fixed-income investments.
Fund managers also enjoy the flexibility of changing the proportion of equity and fixed-income investments in response to market conditions. An upswing may prompt them to hold a relatively higher share of equity to maximize gains, whereas a downturn will see them shifting loyalties toward fixed-income investments to stem losses.
Below, we share with you three balanced mutual funds, viz. Dodge & Cox Balanced Fund DODBX, Meeder Muirfield Fund FLMFX and PIMCO Dividend and Income Fund PQIZX. Each has 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 growth 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 11.4%. As of the end of March 2023, DODBX had 81 issues and 2.3% of its net assets invested in Fiserv.
Meeder Muirfield Fund invests primarily in common and preferred stocks, index-based instruments. FLMFX advisors also invest in domestic and foreign mutual funds, exchange traded funds, closed-end funds, and unit investment trusts.
Meeder Muirfield Fund has three-year annualized returns of 11.0%. FLMFX has an expense ratio of 1.20% compared with the category average of 1.29%.
PIMCO Dividend and Income Fund invests most of its net assets in a diversified portfolio of income-producing portfolio. PQIZX advisor also chooses to invest in equity and equity-related instruments based on PIMCO’s systematic equity income strategy.
PIMCO Dividend and Income Fund has three-year annualized returns of 10.6%. Daniel J. Ivascyn has been one of the fund managers of PQIZX since October 2013.
To view the Zacks Rank and the past performance of all balanced mutual funds, investors can click here to see the complete list of funds.
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