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Morningstar Total Return Bond Overview

Morningstar Total Return Bond (MSTRX) is an actively managed Taxable Bond Intermediate Core Bond fund. Morningstar launched the fund in 2018.

The investment seeks to maximize total return while also generating income and preserving capital. The fund will normally invest at least 80% of its assets in debt securities (commonly referred to as "bonds") of varying maturity, duration, and quality. It invests primarily in investment-grade fixed-income securities. The fund may also invest up to 20% of its assets in fixed-income securities that are rated below investment grade (commonly known as junk bonds), or if unrated, are determined by the fund's subadviser(s) to be of comparable quality.

About Morningstar Total Return Bond (MSTRX)

There are 11 members of the management team with an average tenure of 2.51 years: Anne Walsh (2025), Daniel McNeela (2018), Adam Bloch (2025), Steven Brown (2025), Siddharth Mehta (2025), Russell Brownback (2025), Richard Rieder (2018), Evan Serdensky (2025), Chi Chen (2024), Sam Summers (2025), Alfonzo Bruno (2025). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 1 primary benchmark: Bloomberg US Agg Bond TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Morningstar Total Return Bond has 3092 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 42.3% 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.

Morningstar Total Return Bond is part of the Fixed Income global asset class and is within the Taxable Bond fund group. Morningstar Total Return Bond has 9.5% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 0.5%. There is 0.0% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.7% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 110.8% (101.3% domestic bond, 9.5% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). Morningstar Total Return Bond has -12.0% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $980 million in total assets, which is below the $3 billion average for the Intermediate Core Bond 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.

MSTRX 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 Morningstar Total Return Bond expense ratio is average compared to funds in the Intermediate Core Bond category. Morningstar Total Return Bond has an expense ratio of 0.55%, which is 3% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a C. 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. Morningstar Total Return Bond has a portfolio turnover rate of 399%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 151% for the Intermediate Core Bond category.

Recently, in the month of August 2026, Morningstar Total Return Bond returned 0.3%, which earned it a grade of D, as the Intermediate Core Bond 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.

Morningstar Total Return Bond has a trailing yield of 4.27%, which is above the 4.04% category average. The fund normally distributes its income monthly.

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.

Morningstar Total Return Bond Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned -0.5%, 0.1 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of D. The fund has returned 1.6% over the past year (grade of C), 3.8% over the past three years (grade of D) and -1.0% per year over the past five years (grade of F).

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