Dan Ivascyn, the group chief investment officer at Pacific Investment Management Co (Pimco), eschews making big, splashy investment or market calls, unlike his legendary predecessor, Bill Gross.
"It is never only one person," Ivascyn said in an interview, about investment ideas and fresh strategies. "Even those who use 'I' a lot have very good teams that do the heavy-lifting."
Pimco's emphasis on generating strong long-term risk-adjusted returns has been the key factor behind the success of the Pimco Income Fund (PIMIX), which on Tuesday captured the 2018 U.S. Thomson Reuters Lipper Fund Award in the multi-sector income category over a 10-year period. You can see the full list of Lipper U.S. award winners by clicking here.
Pimco Income, overseen by Ivascyn and managing director and portfolio manager Alfred Murata, is No. 1 in its category with annualized returns of 9.14 percent over the last 10 years ended Feb. 26. Over the same period annualized, the Pimco Income fund has surpassed the benchmark Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond index by 3.74 percentage points.
Todd Rosenbluth, director of mutual fund research at New York-based CFRA Research, said: "The fund has less interest-rate sensitivity than peers and the (Barclays) Agg, while offering more exposure to strong performing high-yield bonds." He added that the Pimco Income fund had "balanced risk-and-reward" better than its peers.
Pimco Income, whose assets have grown to the current $110 billion from $70 billion at the end of 2016, has become the biggest U.S. actively managed bond fund and is considered Pimco's new flagship fund by investors and Wall Street analysts.
"We have a solid team and constantly focus on enhancing our process," Ivascyn said.
The Pimco Income fund's increase in fees at the start of the fourth quarter last year did not deter investors. The fund raised its fees by 5 cents per $100 on Oct. 2 for most share classes, bringing expenses for the institutional-class shares to 50 cents per $100.
"The fund benefited in 2017 from its exposure to mortgage bonds as well as investment-grade and high-yield corporate bonds," Rosenbluth said.
Lipper also recognized Pimco's Short-Term, Foreign Bond and StockPlus funds for their 10-year records in the respective ultra-short obligation, international income and equity categories.