Terms and Definitions
Historical Long-Term Capital Gains: When a capital gain distribution is paid, the net asset value per share is reduced by the amount of the payment plus or minus any change in the value of the fund's holdings. Read our explanation of
the effect of a capital gain on a fund's price for details. Two types of capital gains are realized by our funds — short-term and long-term. Net short-term capital gains are distributed to shareholders as income dividends and are taxed at ordinary income tax rates. Long-term capital gain distributions are taxed at a maximum 15% rate.
Bond Statistic Average Duration in Years: Expressed in years, average duration is a weighted average of the estimated price sensitivity of the bonds in the fund's portfolio to a given change in interest rates. With respect to individual bonds, for example, a duration of 4 years indicates that the price of a bond will rise/fall by approximately 4% if rates in general fall/rise by 1%. Typically, bonds with a longer duration pay higher interest but are more sensitive to interest rate changes.
Bond Statistic Average Life in Years: Expressed in years, average life is time weighting the expected principal payments, taking into consideration the impact of calls and prepayments. In general, it is a better measure than average maturity for bonds that have the ability to prepay principal before they reach maturity (e.g., mortgages, mortgage-backed securities and asset-backed securities). Data shown is a weighted average of the bonds held in the fund's portfolio.
Bond Statistic Average Coupon: The average coupon is the weighted average coupon rate of all the bonds in the fund.
Bond Statistic Average Yield to Maturity: A weighted average of all the fund's bond holding's yield to maturities. Yield to maturity is the return a bond earns if held to maturity, based on its price and coupon. Assumes that coupon payments can be reinvested at the yield to maturity.
Valuation : Price-to-book ratio compares a stock's market value to the value of total assets less total liabilities (book value). Adjusted for stock splits. Price-to-cash-flow (P/C) ratio is the average price to cash flow ratio of the individual stocks within a fund. Price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio takes the current price of a stock divided by its earnings per share. The ratio reflects the cost of a given stock per dollar of current annual earnings and is the most common measure of a stock's expense. The higher the P/E, the more investors are paying, and therefore the more earnings growth they are expecting.
Valuation Price-to-Cash Flow: Price-to-cash-flow (P/C) ratio is the average price to cash flow ratio of the individual stocks within a fund.
Valuation Price-to-Earnings Ratio: Price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio takes the current price of a stock divided by its earnings per share. The ratio reflects the cost of a given stock per dollar of current annual earnings and is the most common measure of a stock's expense. The higher the P/E, the more investors are paying, and therefore the more earnings growth they are expecting.
Morningstar rating : In an effort to classify funds by what they own, as well as by their prospectus objectives and styles, Morningstar developed Morningstar Categories. While the prospectus objective identifies a fund's investment goals based on the wording in the fund prospectus, the Morningstar Category identifies funds based on their actual investment styles as measured by their underlying portfolio holdings (portfolio and other statistics over the past three years).
Standard Deviation: Annualized standard deviation (based on monthly returns) is a common measure of absolute volatility that tells how returns over time have varied from the mean. A lower number signifies lower volatility.
Sharpe Ratio: Sharpe ratios use standard deviation and excess return to determine reward per unit of risk. The higher the number, the better the portfolio's historical risk-adjusted performance.
R-Squared: R-squared is a measure of the correlation between a particular fund's return and that of its benchmark index. A measure of 100 indicates that all of the fund's return can be explained by movements in its benchmark. Generally the higher the R-squared measure, the more reliable the beta measurement will be. Calculated by Morningstar.
Beta: Beta relatively measures a fund's sensitivity to market movements over a specified period of time. The beta of the market (represented by the benchmark index) is equal to 1; a beta higher than 1 implies that a fund's return was more volatile than the market. A beta lower than 1 suggests that the fund was less volatile than the market. Generally the higher the R-squared measure, the more reliable the beta measurement will be.
Capture Ratio Downside: Capture ratios reflect the annualized product of fund vs. index returns for all months in which the index had a positive return (upside capture) or negative return (downside capture).
Currency Weighting Short Breakdown: The fund's exposure to a specific currency before taking into consideration any forward currency contracts that may increase or decrease that currency's exposure.
Barclays U.S. Government/Credit 1-7 Years ex BBB: Barclays U.S. Government/Credit 1–7 Years ex BBB Index is a market-value weighted index that tracks the total return results of fixed-rate, publicly placed, dollar-denominated obligations issued by the U.S. Treasury, U.S. government agencies, quasi-federal corporations, corporate or foreign debt guaranteed by the U.S. government, and U.S. corporate and foreign debentures and secured notes that meet specified maturity, liquidity and quality requirements, with maturities of one to seven years, excluding BBB-rated securities.
Institutions & Consultants From Capital Group