Any investors who are searching for International Bond - Developed funds should take a look at Vanguard Total International Bond Index Admiral (VTABX). The fund does not have a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank, though we have been able to explore other metrics like performance, volatility, and cost.

Objective

The world of International Bond - Developed funds is an area filled with different choices, like VTABX. International Bond - Developed funds focus on fixed income securities from developed nations besides the United States. This usually results in countries like Japan, Germany, the UK, France, and Australia dominating the list of top holdings. Funds here offer geographic diversification, but they can also introduce currency risk into the picture as well.

History of Fund/Manager

Vanguard Group is based in Malvern, PA, and is the manager of VTABX. The Vanguard Total International Bond Index Admiral made its debut in May of 2013 and VTABX has managed to accumulate roughly $23.97 billion in assets, as of the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by Joshua Barrickman who has been in charge of the fund since May of 2013.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. VTABX has a 5-year annualized total return of -0.2% and it sits in the bottom third among its category peers. Investors who prefer analyzing shorter time frames should look at its 3-year annualized total return of -0.71%, 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, VTABX's standard deviation comes in at 6.12%, compared to the category average of 11.63%. The standard deviation of the fund over the past 5 years is 5.23% compared to the category average of 12%. This makes the fund less volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

VTABX carries a beta of 0.7, meaning that the fund is less volatile than a broad market index of fixed income securities. With this in mind, it has a negative alpha of -1.06, which measures performance on a risk-adjusted basis.

Expenses

As competition heats up in the mutual fund market, costs become increasingly important. Compared to its otherwise identical counterpart, a low-cost product will be an outperformer, all other things being equal. Thus, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is vital for investors. In terms of fees, VTABX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.11% compared to the category average of 0.82%. So, VTABX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.