Fund Evaluator:

T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Bond Index Fund Overview

T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Bond Index Fund (PBDIX) is an actively managed Taxable Bond Intermediate Core Bond fund. T. Rowe Price launched the fund in 2000.

The investment seeks to provide a total return that matches or incrementally exceeds the performance of the U.S. investment-grade bond market. The fund normally invests at least 80% of its net assets in U.S. bonds and in securities that are represented in the fund’s benchmark index. Consistent with the benchmark index, the fund’s holdings will normally include U.S. government and agency obligations, mortgage- and asset-backed securities, corporate bonds, and U.S. dollar-denominated securities of foreign issuers. The index is market capitalization weighted and the securities represented in the index are updated on the last business day of each month.

About T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Bond Index Fund (PBDIX)

There are 2 members of the management team with an average tenure of 10.68 years: Robert Larkins (2007), Yongheon Lee (2024). 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 Lipper Core Bond Avg index with a weighting of 100%. T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Bond Index Fund has 1606 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 15.6% 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.

T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Bond Index Fund is part of the Fixed Income global asset class and is within the Taxable Bond fund group. T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Bond Index Fund has 7.0% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 0.2%. There is 0.0% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 98.5% (91.4% domestic bond, 7.0% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Bond Index Fund has 1.4% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $462 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.

PBDIX 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 T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Bond Index Fund expense ratio is below average compared to funds in the Intermediate Core Bond category. T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Bond Index Fund has an expense ratio of 0.25%, which is 56% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a A. 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. T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Bond Index Fund has a portfolio turnover rate of 67%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 150% for the Intermediate Core Bond category.

Recently, in the month of June 2026, T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Bond Index Fund returned 0.3%, which earned it a grade of C, as the Intermediate Core Bond category had an average return of 0.2%. 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.

T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Bond Index Fund has a trailing yield of 4.27%, which is above the 3.97% category average. The fund normally distributes its income monthly 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.

T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Bond Index Fund 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 3.7% over the past year (grade of C), 4.1% over the past three years (grade of C) and -0.1% per year over the past five years (grade of C) and 1.5% per year over the past 10 years (grade of C).

For more mutual fund grades, analysis and screening tools to help your investment discovery, join AAII for a $2, full-access trial. Learn more here: https://invest.aaii.com/membership.

Otherwise, for more information about T. Rowe Price QM U.S. Bond Index Fund, including its riskiness, submit your email to unlock the rest of the article.