Core Plus Fixed Income

The strategy seeks above-benchmark total returns over a full market cycle. The strategy pursues investment opportunities throughout the U.S. fixed-income universe, creating a diversified portfolio across sectors, risk factors, and investment horizons.*

Strategy highlights

Inception date

June 30, 1991

Benchmark

Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index

Total strategy assets

$1.4B

(as of February 2024)

Investment vehicles

  • Separate account
  • U.S. mutual fund
  • The strategy mandate allows the managers to pursue investment opportunities throughout the U.S. fixed-income universe, creating a diversified portfolio across sectors, risk factors and investment horizons
  • May hold securities from a broad range of sectors within fixed income including credit (investment grade, high yield, bank loans, convertible bonds), securitized debt (MBS, CMBS, CMO, ABS), and government debt (treasuries and agencies)
  • The emphasis on portfolio construction is on making security selection the primary driver of returns, with sub-sector allocations and macro strategies (such as term structure decisions) also serving as potential alpha generators

 

*No assurance can be given that the investment objective will be achieved or that an investor will receive a return of all or part of his or her initial investment. Actual results could be materially different from the stated goals. Investors should carefully consider the risks involved before deciding to invest. As with any investment, there is a potential for profit as well as the possibility of loss.

Assets may include accounts that are not reflected in the composite.

Investment team

Performance

Annualized composite performance (%) as of February 29, 2024

  MTD QTD YTD 1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
Core Plus Fixed Income (gross) -0.88% -0.44% -0.44% 5.05% -3.26% 1.19% 2.08%
Core Plus Fixed Income (net) -0.91% -0.50% -0.50% 4.64% -3.64% 0.79% 1.68%
Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index -1.41% -1.68% -1.68% 3.33% -3.16% 0.56% 1.43%

Calendar-year composite performance (%) as of February 29, 2024

  2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014
Core Plus Fixed Income (gross) 5.59% -12.34% -3.23% 7.79% 12.21% 1.28% 6.74% 2.92% -0.86% 6.26%
Core Plus Fixed Income (net) 5.18% -12.69% -3.61% 7.36% 11.77% 0.89% 6.32% 2.52% -1.26% 5.83%
Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index 5.53% -13.01% -1.54% 7.51% 8.72% 0.01% 3.54% 2.65% 0.55% 5.97%

Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. An investment in this strategy could lose value. Most recent month-end performance is preliminary. Returns are subject to change.

Periods less than one year are not annualized. Performance is stated in U.S. dollars and includes the reinvestment of dividends and interest.

Literature

Important disclosures

 

The Putnam Investments Core Plus Fixed Income Composite (the "Composite") seeks above-average total returns relative to its benchmark, the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, over a full market cycle. Active risk will be managed commensurate to the strategy's performance goal with a target information ratio (measure of excess return divided by risk) of 0.5 to 1.0. The strategy pursues investment opportunities throughout the U.S. fixed-income universe, creating a diversified portfolio across sectors, risk factors and investment horizons. Accounts in the Composite May hold securities from a broad range of sectors within fixed income including credit (investment grade, high yield, bank loans, convertible bonds), securitized debt (MBS, CMBS, CMO, ABS), and government debt (treasuries and agencies). The Composite’s benchmark is the BBG Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. The Composite may include accounts with different, but largely similar benchmarks. Leverage is not used in the Composite; however, derivatives (including the use of "short" derivatives, such as futures, options, and swaps) may be used for hedging or non-hedging purposes. The Composite includes all fully discretionary accounts managed by Putnam Investments in this style. The Composite inception date was June 30, 1991. The Composite creation date was January 21, 1997.

The Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index is an unmanaged index of U.S. investment-grade fixed-income securities.  Indexes are rebalanced monthly by market capitalization.

 

Gross performance includes the deduction of transaction costs but does not include the deduction of management fees and other expenses that may be incurred in managing an investment account. A portfolio's return will be reduced by advisory and other fees. Net performance reflects the deduction of a model fee applied on a monthly basis, equal to the actual management fee incurred by a portfolio in the Composite or the highest management fee that would be charged to a prospect of the strategy, whichever is higher. The model fee may change over time. Actual advisory fees may vary among clients with the same investment strategy. The Composite includes all actual, fully discretionary accounts with substantially similar investment policies and objectives managed to the Composite's investment strategy. Benchmarks are generally taken from published sources and may have different calculation methodologies, pricing times, and/or foreign-exchange sources from the Composite. The effect of those differences is generally deemed to be immaterial. The securities holdings of the Composite strategy may differ materially from those of the index used for comparative purposes.