Fund Evaluator:

American Beacon Balanced Adv Overview

American Beacon Balanced Adv (ABLSX) is an actively managed Allocation Moderate Allocation fund. American Beacon launched the fund in 2005.

The investment seeks income and capital appreciation. Under normal circumstances, between 50% and 70% of the fund's total assets are invested in equity securities and between 30% and 50% of the fund's total assets are invested in debt securities. The fund’s equity investments may include common stocks, preferred stocks, convertible securities, master limited partnerships (“MLPs”), REITs, depositary receipts, which may include ADRs and GDRs, and U.S. dollar-denominated foreign stocks traded on U.S. exchanges.

About American Beacon Balanced Adv (ABLSX)

There are 16 members of the management team with an average tenure of 13.18 years: Patrick Sporl (2026), Kirk Brown (2016), Deborah Petruzzelli (2003), Scott McBride (2004), Erin Higginbotham (2011), Samuel Silver (2014), Paul Cavazos (2016), Matthew Routh (2021), Douglas Campbell (2024), Justin Martin (2021), Robyn Serrano (2026), Mark Giambrone (2015), Shannon Hogan (2026), George Davis (1989), J. Scott McDonald (1998), Patricia McKenna (1995). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: Bloomberg US Agg Bond TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and S&P 500 (TR) (1970) index with a weighting of 100%. American Beacon Balanced Adv has 386 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 18.4% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

American Beacon Balanced Adv is part of the Allocation global asset class and is within the Allocation fund group. American Beacon Balanced Adv has 8.0% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 54.8%. There is 4.5% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 34.5% (31.0% domestic bond, 3.5% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). American Beacon Balanced Adv has 6.2% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $369 million in total assets, which is below the $2 billion average for the Moderate Allocation category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

ABLSX Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The American Beacon Balanced Adv expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Moderate Allocation category. American Beacon Balanced Adv has an expense ratio of 1.36%, which is 37% higher than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a F. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. American Beacon Balanced Adv has a portfolio turnover rate of 31%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 52% for the Moderate Allocation category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, American Beacon Balanced Adv returned 1.3%, which earned it a grade of A, as the Moderate Allocation category had an average return of -0.3%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all funds in that category.

American Beacon Balanced Adv has a trailing yield of 1.47%, which is below the 1.97% category average. The fund normally distributes its income quarterly and its capital gains annually.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

American Beacon Balanced Adv Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 5.9%, 0.6 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of D. The fund has returned 13.1% over the past year (grade of C), 10.3% over the past three years (grade of F) and 6.5% per year over the past five years (grade of C) and 8.1% per year over the past 10 years (grade of D).

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